Risks of ‘long Covid’ are devastating, especially for those with underlying health problems – it kills thousands – RT Op-ed

The new document written by UK academic researchers and government statisticians provides a sobering message: leaving the hospital may not be the end of things for patients with Covid-19. Looking at the patients who were discharged from hospital in the first wave in England, nearly a third ended up in hospital and one in eight has died.

The study followed 47,780 people who had been hospitalized in England with the virus and were subsequently released, representing 80% of those who had been hospitalized and survived during the study period (through 31 August 2020).

Also on rt.com
As Lockdown 3.0 descends on Great Britain, the time for reason and argument is over. Only dissent will save us now

The main results were that 29.4% of those released were readmitted to hospital at a later date and 12.3% died. One obvious question is whether these were old people who were going to get sick anyway and die for other reasons. The study found that people hospitalized with Covid-19 were more likely to be aged 50 or over, male, living in a deprived area, being a former smoker, and overweight or obese; they were also more likely to be co-morbid than the general population, with a higher prevalence of previous hospitalizations and all of the pre-existing conditions measured (including hypertension, cardiovascular problems, respiratory disease, and diabetes).

When patients were matched with similar people in the larger population who never had the disease, these post-Covid patients were 3.5 times more likely to be admitted to hospital and 7.7 times more likely likely to die.

Covid-19 is a particularly nasty disease, period, and is particularly deadly for people with underlying medical conditions, in that it triggers the immune system to attack the patient’s own organs. The “cytokine storm” phenomenon received a lot of attention at the start of the pandemic, as patients who seemed to be doing well suddenly went into a catastrophic recession, their immune systems spiraling out of control.

In December, a Yale University study found that ‘autoantibodies“Were a major problem in Covid patients. As the Guardian reported: “Scientists compared immune responses in patients and uninfected people and found dozens of aberrant antibodies in the former. These antiviral defenses blocked, wiping out helpful immune cells and attacking the body on many fronts, from the brain, blood vessels and liver to connective tissue and the gastrointestinal tract.. “

The new research, led by Kamlesh Khunti, professor of primary care diabetes and vascular medicine at the University of Leicester, found something perhaps surprising: While those most severely affected by Covid-19, those who needed intensive care, experienced higher rates of post-discharge respiratory disease and diabetes, rates of death, readmission and major cardiovascular events (MACE) were worse in those who had not been in intensive care. In other words, it wasn’t just a case of people with the worst initial illnesses having the worst long-term results.

Perhaps similarly surprisingly, while it was people over 70 who were more likely to have problems after discharge, the Long Covid appears to have a greater impact in those under 70 compared to at their usual risk of disease (mean age of study participants was 65)

As this is an observational study, the old adage that ‘correlation does not equal causality‘applies. For example, as the paper notes, people who were already heading for issues like diabetes and heart disease would have been more likely to end up in hospital than those with better underlying health.

The research also did not examine those who were not sick enough with Covid-19 to be admitted to hospital. A study published earlier this month suggests that 12.4 million people in England may have had Covid, of whom 300,000 required hospital treatment – around 2.5%. So overall, we’re looking at probably around 0.75% of the population that has been readmitted by Covid for a long time. That said, there have been reports of multi-organ issues among people out of hospital, so there is little room for complacency.

Another new study has concluded that how quickly a patient’s immune system responds after a Covid infection plays a crucial role in determining the severity of the attack and may play a role in its recurrence.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge studied 207 people who tested positive for the virus over a three-month period and found that those who had no symptoms or mild cases developed a robust immune response soon after becoming infected. But those who needed to be hospitalized had a weakened immune response, leading to a delayed and weakened attempt to fight the virus.

The main message from these findings is that we urgently need to do more research on the full impact of post-Covid syndrome (PCS), both to improve treatment and to assess future impacts on health services.

One idea that would be worth looking into is whether the damage is done during the time people feel sick with Covid-19 or if it persists after they appear to have recovered. If the latter is the case, perhaps treatment to suppress these autoimmune effects needs to be continued in some form for weeks or months afterwards.

What is clear is that what is called ‘long Covid‘it’s more than feeling bad longer than expected. The effects of the disease, particularly in the way it causes the immune system to damage organ tissue, can be very serious and some patients never recover. At the very least, we need to have a way to monitor patients with Covid-19 after their recovery, so that we can research these issues and plan for the additional demands they may place on health services.

It may also cause us to reconsider the exact number of people who have died from Covid-19. If someone only leaves the hospital to die weeks or months later from organ damage from the disease, we should probably count that as Covid deaths as well. The flagship measure at the moment is “deaths from all causes within 28 days of a positive test”. This measure is likely to ignore some deaths that should be counted, and perhaps include some deaths that were entirely from another cause. Death certificates are better, but have their own issues. Getting a more accurate picture will be difficult, but it’s still important.

Some will undoubtedly use this document as additional ammunition to promote lockdowns. But while this may shift the balance between the benefits and costs of restrictions, the costs of lockdowns are not yet sufficiently emphasized. The focus remains myopic on reducing the number of infections. But while some measures have a major impact at relatively low cost – like banning large indoor gatherings or harassing us to avoid crowded spaces – some have fairly modest benefits and huge costs, such as school closures.

Importantly, this new research once again underscores the need to get immunization programs in place as quickly as possible. No stone should be left out so that everyone is vaccinated as quickly as possible. Then we can leave this mess behind us once and for all.

Do you think your friends would be interested? Share this story!