What's ailing long COVID patients? A new federal study looks for clues
NPR Online NewsMay 25, 2022
In a study published on Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "long COVID" was cited as the cause of death for at least 3,544 Americans during the first 2.5 years of the pandemic.
Although this represents 0.3% of the over 1M Americans who have died from the virus, the study's findings suggest that while long COVID is correlated to long-term illness it "can be a cause of death."
As the world emerges from the worst of the COVID pandemic more studies will need to be conducted to better understand what the virus does to the human body and how those changes will impact the infected in both the short- and long-term. Until medical professionals fully understand the pathology of the virus and subsequent disease, we must support patients with their troubling long COVID experiences.
Medical experts are excited and hopeful to see the CDC studying deaths from long COVID. Now that institutions are coming on board, doctors can also be better educated on the long-term consequences. The data only shows a snapshot of the long COVID tragedy, but the profession is moving in the right direction.
"Long COVID" is just the latest chapter in the pandemic fear campaign. In fact, other reputable studies indicate long COVID may be no worse than any other post-viral syndrome. Statistics are easily manipulated, as we've seen time and again in the past three years, and this latest bout of COVID alarmism should be taken with a grain of salt.
There's a 50% chance that there will be at least 1.1M confirmed COVID deaths in the US by the end of 2022, according to the Metaculus prediction community.