Covid Chronicles — July 2022 Reinfections and #LongCOVID
COVID Hits Home, Again
The uptick in COVID-19 cases is serious and we can’t bury our heads in the sand and act like it’s not happening. I have friends in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and other parts of the country that have been reinfected and most were vaccinated and are experiencing mild to moderate symptoms. This is very scary for me — considering I’m battling Long COVID since October 2021 and it’s been almost impossible to schedule follow-up appointments with specialists.
According to an article by Jason Laughlin from the Philadelphia Inquirer,
“Despite progress in treating COVID, Penn researcher Nuala Meyer has been frustrated by the reality that patients’ quality of life could still be pretty poor…[Citing a report from The New England Journal of Medicine, Laughlin added] “Nationally, COVID cases are up 4% and hospitalizations are up 10% over 14 days, largely driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron sub-variants. The latter is highly infectious and vaccination or previous bouts with COVID provide less protection against mild illness than seen with other strains of omicron.” (Laughlin, 2022)
This seems to be true for me and my friends across the board. I already work from home, but I’ve limited any unnecessary outings because I’m terrified of being reinfected. My friends are reporting everything from debilitating headaches and severe chest pain to explosive diarrhea. None have been hospitalized, but all are having a hard time navigating health care systems that don’t want to physically see COVID patients.
My friends are Black professionals in 4 different states across the country. Yet, we’re all suffering and getting really poor treatment.
One of my friend’s automated HR/PTO systems keeps denying her sick leave even though she’s tested positive for the last two weeks and her primary care physician would only “see” her via telehealth. She and her husband had to harass the doctor to finally prescribe steroids to relieve her chest/lung pain.
After a week of quarantine, an urgent care facility agreed to see her in person — but they didn’t offer any further help other than a…
