as we just marked the third anniversary of the pandemic shutdowns for many covid feels like it's slipping out of view but for some the long-term health effects of the virus continue months even years after their illness doctors are still trying to understand what it means to have long covid and more importantly how best to treat their long-suffering patients in our ongoing series living with covid senior correspondent Brenna Flanagan takes a look at who is most likely to suffer from long covid and how their lives are being altered by the disease today I can say I am more than hopeful I am joyful but it took Joy Ezekiel Gibson three years of suffering from long covet to get here she can't remember her 17 days on a ventilator at Virtua fighting for her life against the virus in mid-march 2020 during the pandemic's initial assault New Jersey had shut down under a Statewide stay-at-home order as covid rampaged Joy fought for her life and made it home but that just marked the beginning I had problems walking pain in my legs just unbearable amount of pain you're constantly fatigued um and for me a low point was not being able to be there for my daughter preparing for homecoming and I felt like a horrible mother quite frankly and my daughter came up to me and she said mom you're here it's more important for you to be here George family stepped up cared for her at home along with visiting nurses and therapists she got coveted vaccinations and boosters which seemed to help like many long coveted patients the Camden County residents recovering but she's not back to work yet you know you feel like you're going crazy not being able to work having the brain fog it you don't know who you are long-haul covid is one of the one of the repercussions that we sort of have forgotten about a little bit as we've started to open our lives back up Dr Angela Skrzynski says that in New Jersey an estimated 12 percent of adults have been experiencing post-covid symptoms for weeks or months virtual Health's care after covid teleclinic seen 800 150 patients over the past two years for ongoing issues difficult to get to work difficult to keep up with housework they can't maintain their relationships and their social lives in the same way that they did previously and I think that there can often be a perception that the the individual with long-haul covet is weak or feigning illness to get out of work she knows while recent Omicron strange drove spikes in acute covid cases studies now show it's the early strange that Linger The Wild type and then the Delta variant tended to produce we think a lot more long-haul or long-term symptoms than the Omicron variants that we've seen in the past year or so another Factor influencing long covid could be vaccine says Montclair epidemiologist Stephanie Silvera if you were vaccinated before you got covid there's some pretty strong and growing evidence that you're less likely to experience these post-covid symptoms adults aren't alone in dealing with long covet it's still impacting kids too and studies are underway now trying to gauge the long-term effects of the virus we're finding that covid is a meaningful illness at least some of the time in at least some children Dr Lawrence Kleinman says a Rutgers study of 2 000 kids with long covet will yield more data in about six months what they've observed even children who have mild covid three months after being sick only about 85 86 percent of their parents say they're back to normal the pandemic is over in the minds of a lot of people um there's you know it's covid is still out there Darlene doll's an actor who's battled long covid since March 2020 she's finally easing back into life today was the first day that I was walking down the street and I was going oh my God am I I think I'm okay it was sort of like the first day that I felt normal long covid patients say they want the community to understand their struggle and offer support and encouragement as bad as it seems right now it definitely will get better it will get better the lockdown's over the healing continues I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News foreign [Music]