by Tonya L. Breaux-Shropshire, PhD, DNP, FNP, MPH
We have been waiting to transition to the COVID-19 endemic, and it won’t be long now! Whoo whoo! The test and treat program that President Biden mentioned a couple of days ago sounds terrific. People need to know to get tested early and treat as soon as they are positive.
Paxlovid has been shown to make people feel better sooner than later, and perhaps save you a trip to the emergency room. Usually, COVID lasts about 14 days but you are really not out of the woods until about 90 days if it’s not long COVID.
However, healthcare experts and microbiologists are now concerned about long COVID because no one is at low risk for it. There is a potential treatment for Long Covid and that is Paxlovid, but so far, we have no good data on if it would work.
Of course, vaccination reduces your risks for long COVID, and vaccination might reduce your duration of long COVID symptoms. Long COVID could involve fatigue, hair loss, tinnitus, and chronic fatigue-like symptoms.
Research is showing that three children are dying worldwide every day from Omicron, which is surprising.
Resources:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
* https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
* https://www.cdc.gov/