Veal Micron variant has driven
Colorado positivity rate in
new cases to pandemic records.
So many Coloradans are
recovering from in Omak,
Ron infection right now,
and we're starting to learn more about
what that might look like right now.
Nine health expert Doctor Payal Kohli
is joining us now with some insight
into recovery and reinfection pile.
Everyone knows someone that is there
within the last couple of weeks alone.
So what does it look like this?
This type of COVID this omicron?
Does it cause that long COVID?
How many people have talked about?
So true came we're seeing all of our
friends and family members recover,
and what we're seeing is that most people
within five days, some 10 to 14 days,
are pretty much back to normal.
But there is a subset of people that
continue to have fatigue, and essentially,
what happens in these people is they
come about 90% back to normal with their
energy levels in that first 10 to 14 days.
But then that last 10% can linger for weeks,
or perhaps even months,
and the CDC has defined long COVID as at
least having four weeks of lingering fatigue.
Concentration issues etc.
In the UK they actually define
it as three months of symptoms,
so meikrantz pretty new.
But what we're seeing so far about a month
into the cases is that there are subset
of people that will develop long COVID,
even from Omak, Ron well.
How
do you predict that?
Like, is it the severity of how
sick you get when you get Omak?
Ron does that predict if you're going
to get this long fatigue or not?
A billion dollar scientific question,
Alex, we've been scratching our heads
'cause initially we thought yes,
it is the inflammatory illness,
the severity of the initial illness
that predicts how much inflammation
you're going to have afterwards.
But then studies started coming out that
showed that relationship to not be true.
Even mild cases developed long COVID and
then on top of that we got vaccinated,
which has already made the index illness
or the initial illness a lot milder.
So it may not express itself.
So we don't exactly know whether the
index illness predicts the severity.
So even those people that have mild
COVID should keep their radar up
and see if they're still having
lingering fatigue after the infection.
Yeah, I think we've heard from
friends that have said that now.
Do you have a percentage like how
many people is it? 10 percent,
20% whatever that get this long COVID
this is startling guys.
It really really knocked my socks
off when I saw the number because
10 to 30% of people based on what
we know about prior variants have
reported symptoms of long COVID.
And now with all these people getting
Omicron, assuming that it's same for Omicron,
which you know all the other variants
have had sort of the same incidence
of long COVID from alpha beta.
You know, delta,
the original Wuhan variants,
so it might be similar for Omicron
10 to 30% of all those people in
Colorado and across the country that.
We're positive really has created
essentially a chronic public
health crisis with long fatigue.
So do you have? I mean,
it's easy to say you know,
rest, take it easy, but like,
do you have any medical advice
to how we can cope with this
lingering fatigue? The most
important advice is do not push
yourself because pushing through it
actually may make the situation worse
and really the timeline in your head
that should set off an alarm bell is
4 weeks so you know two weeks you're
starting to get back on your feet.
Your that 90% that last 10% should
come in those next two weeks,
and if it doesn't,
it's time to talk to your doctor.
Unfortunately not a lot of therapies
that we've developed for long COVID,
but especially in the cardiovascular space.
For example, we're starting to come up
with off label uses of other drugs.
That could potentially help patients
cope and recover after long COVID.
It's good. OK, well, I hate to
ask this bummer of a question,
but can you get Omicron again?
Yes, and that is a very
important question to ask right now.
Yeah, it's a cold virus, right?
We can get cold over and over again,
but there is some silver lining here,
so let's talk about this, which is that,
at least for the first couple of
months and a new study just came out of
England that says up to five months.
You may actually be protected
from getting reinfected,
but after that there's actually
data that tells us that the risk of
reinfection with Oma Cron a second
time around is about fivefold.
What it was with Delta,
so if you've had an infection,
you're recovering.
Make sure you don't get, you know,
a little.
Too lackadaisical about those masks because
you don't want to get infected again,
especially after those first
couple of months.
That's important to hear 'cause
I think if you you know,
I feel like I've had COVID,
I'm invincible. I've got this,
but clearly not no, no, that's we.
You know, we're thankful you just
tell us the facts. Doctor Kohli.
So all we have to do is take
them in to do the right thing.
So thank you.