The Ongoing Risk Of Long COVID
What are the rates of long-term COVID-19 symptoms in 2023 and beyond?
It’s 2023, and the individual risk from COVID-19 has never been lower. We’ve developed new treatments, brilliant vaccines, and have very strong immunity to the disease built up over the years since it first emerged. While COVID-19 is undoubtedly a public health issue — it probably always will be — the risks of bad things like hospitalization and death are to the individual the lowest that they’ve ever been.
That’s not to say COVID-19 has gone away. COVID-19, as with influenza, tuberculosis, measles, and most other public health threats, is still a serious problem. The current yearly death rate is at least double that of a bad influenza year, which is likely because while COVID-19 is similarly lethal to the flu in 2023 with vaccines, hybrid immunity, and improved treatments, it is still far more infectious. However, in general, it’s fair to say that COVID-19 has moved from a public health emergency to a public health problem.
But there’s still a really important issue that people raise whenever you discuss the long-term view of COVID-19 — what about Long COVID? We know that many people suffer issues after their acute infections, and there are still people having life-shattering problems even years after their brush with the…
