Lambert’s COVID roundup

State of play

For March 2024

think of this post as my “director’s cut” on Covid

Before I begin: (1) Covid is not “over”; mass infection from the pandemic continues. (2) Covid is airborne. 

Long COVID resource

An evolving document  from Pandemic Patients 

For many people, being exposed to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) results in illness characterized by mild symptoms, resolving in a matter of days or weeks. In fact, research has found that 30-60% of COVID-19 cases may be entirely asymptomatic (Shang et al., 2022; Wang et al., 2023). However, that is not the only potential outcome, and each infection is a new opportunity for long-term symptoms to develop (Bowe et al., 2022).

In fact, some people experience severe, debilitating symptoms that may last for several years and may not improve over time (Fernandez-de-las-Peñas et al., 2023). Other people recover from COVID-19, but as a result of the infection, they are now vulnerable to many types of health conditions, known as “post-COVID conditions,” or “PCCs” (Fernandez-de-las-Peñas et al., 2023; Xie et al., 2023).

These conditions affect nearly every organ in the body and range from benign to life-threatening (Bowe et al., 2022; D’Isabel et al., 2023; Zhao et al., 2023; Novak et al., 2022; Fernandez-de-las-Peñas et al., 2023; Xie et al., 2023; Peter et al., 2022; Abbasi, 2022; Ormiston et al., 2022; Ma et al., 2023). However, there is no way to know who will be susceptible to a particular condition until it manifests.

There appears to be a reciprocal relationship between COVID-19 and PCCs:

• Underlying health factors place people at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19.
• People who experience severe illness from COVID-19 have a greater risk of developing one or more PCCs (Xie et al., 2023; Perez Giraldo et al., 2023).

However, the damage done by COVID-19 is cumulative (Bowe et al., 2022). Even someone who recovers from an asymptomatic (Ma et al., 2023) or mild case (Novak et al., 2022) of COVID-19 is at risk of developing one or more PCCs.

In fact, a recent review by Boufidou et al. (2023) noted that those who were reinfected were more prone to developing long-term symptoms—in comparison to those who were only infected once—and more prone to “various complications, including potential cardiac, pulmonary, or neurological problems” (p. 7). Even asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections can result in long-term symptoms such as fatigue, loss of taste or smell, or chronic cough (Ma et al., 2023).

The outrage industry

Teri Kanefield

Discusses the discussion 

UV against SARS

Joey Fox has an explainer

Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI), also known as Germicidal Ultraviolet (GUV) simply refers to using UV light to inactivate microbes like viruses, bacteria or fungi. They will still be floating in the air or found on surfaces and you will still touch them, ingest them or inhale them, but they become harmless.

There are many different ways UV light can be used and it often causes confusion. To know whether the UV system you are using is extremely effective, okay, useless or harmful, you need to be able to recognize the different types.

…

Of all the methods we have to clean the air with a long historical evidence base, upper room UV is the most effective.

Here’s a table summarizing the approaches