Name: Lingering Symptoms from COVID-19 are “Unprecedented”
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The number of COVID long-haulers is unknown, but experts estimate that millions of Americans could be affected by lingering symptoms of the disease.

Could an out-of-order immune system be to blame?

The number of COVID long-haulers is unknown, but experts estimate that millions of Americans could be affected by lingering symptoms of the disease.

Lingering Symptoms from COVID-19 are “Unprecedented”

Could an out-of-order immune system be to blame?

Body & Brain

Lingering Symptoms from COVID-19 are “Unprecedented”Published: February 4, 2021Dr. Margot Gage Whitvliet: It’s the worst thing in the world to be thinking about where you need to place your children in the event that something happens to you.Off-camera: You need to put this mask on Gage Whitvliet: We raced to the E.R. in Galveston, Texas because I had difficulty breathing. Hurts to talk. I was an active, healthy person… my quality of life is still severely impacted from this.Narrator: More than nine months after being treated for COVID-19, epidemiologist Dr. Margot Gage is still experiencing lingering effects of the virus. Gage Whitvliet: At one point I had to use a cane to get around. If I walked to the kitchen, I would forget what I was going there for. I had forgotten my daughter's birth dates at one pointNarrator: She considers herself a covid long hauler, a term used to describe a persisting symptoms or new complications that occur weeks or even months after a COVID-19 infection has passed. Long haulers commonly describe trouble breathing, cognitive and neurological issues.Dr. Avindra Nath: We expected that with every infection, you get some lingering kind of symptoms that patients would have. But the extent of and the different varieties of syndromes that we've seen. Well, that is unprecedented for many other viral infections.Narrator: The number of people experiencing lingering symptoms from the coronavirus is unknown but researchers estimate that millions of Americans could be affected. Monica L. Lypson: If even one percent, less than one percent of patients are affected by COVID-long… that’s a lot of patients.Narrator: And it's not only those who had trouble breathing during their initial infection who are suffering long-lasting effects of the virus.Nath: That came to us as a real surprise that some patients can have very little lung symptoms and then come down with all these neurological symptoms after that.Narrator: Symptoms like the persistent loss of smell and taste, vision changes, numbness, tingling, and muscle pain. Riley Behrens: I woke up with, like, extreme left sided weakness, like I could barely balance on my own. I couldn't hold my dog's leash in my hand. My vision was spotty. It felt like you're looking through Swiss cheese- where you can only see a little bit of the picture.Narrator: Riley Behrens was hospitalized after testing positive for COVID. Doctors told him he likely suffered a transient ischemic attack, or a mini-stroke. Behrens: But when he said “stroke” a mini stroke, I laughed. I was like, Dad, I'm twenty three. Like, this isn't real. The doctor's wrong. COVID is doing things to people that nobody would have ever imagined. Narrator: Researchers aren’t sure to what extent the virus can enter the brain, or directly attack the nervous system causing these neurological symptoms But it’s possible the immune system doesn’t return to normal after the infection is cleared, triggering an autoimmune response Nath: I think the immune dysfunction is certainly a major part of the syndrome. Now, viruses are very clever, and they don't have all the machinery to survive by themselves. So they have to survive in the host. So in order to do so, they co-opt the cell machinery. it's not unusual that some parts of the virus may resemble that of the host. If the immune system starts mistaking self for something foreign, then you end up with this autoimmune reaction. Narrator: In other words, our immune system gets confused, and instead of just attacking the virus and other foreign invaders, it might actually start attacking healthy cells. Some symptoms of long COVID overlap with a chronic illness called ME/CFS, which has been linked to SARS. Symptoms like memory loss, confusion, fatigue or post-exertional malaise. Dr. Mady Hornig: I, I run out of energy almost as if I'm an electrical device and with no backup battery and someone just pulled the cord out and that's it. I’ve got nothing more in me.Narrator: There are still a lot of unknowns about the permanent and long-term effects of COVID. But other coronaviruses like SARS and MERS have left survivors with persisting lung damage. Nath: It's too early to know what the long term consequences might be and if there's permanent damage to the brain or other neural structures. We do worry that there will be long term consequences and these patients, not all of them will never recover completely. Narrator: Nearly a year into the coronavirus pandemic, a path forward for those affected is still unclear. Gage Whitvliet: A lot of us are going to be having issues for a really long time. And I think that there's a lot more of us than we realize.Lypson: Are there patients actually suffering who think this is normal?I actually wonder a lot is that going on? Especially in our more vulnerable communities.

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Lingering Symptoms from COVID-19 are “Unprecedented”

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