A Case Of Long Covid Or Short Cuckoo? That Is The Q

I feel for the docs who have to deal with “Long Covid” or folks’ blaming all sorts of mental & physical illnesses on “Covid”. According to the WSJ op ed, “The Dubious Origins of Long Covid”, some aching people are reading their doctors the Riot Act for even suggesting they might be Cuckoo rather than having Covid. And, considering there are now scores of possible “Covid symptoms” out there, I’m betting many health care providers are getting tempted to just go along with a given possible psychosis & hand out a sugar pill cure.

No kidding. According to Jeremy Devine, “’Long Covid,’ or post-Covid syndrome, is an emerging condition that has attracted great media attention – and now (what else?) federal funding. The NIH last month announced a $1.15 billion initiative to research the ‘prolonged health consequences’ of Covid-19 infection.” Problem is, while especially older and/or high-risk patients with co-morbidities, need special attention if symptoms really do outlast a virus infection, “such symptoms can also be psychologically generated or caused by a physical illness unrelated to the prior infection.”

Indeed, Mr. Devine argues, “Long Covid” has a “highly unorthodox origin” focusing on online surveys, especially those produced by Body Politic, which describes itself as “a queer feminist wellness collective merging the personal & the political.” Not a good calling card in my book. But, beyond this medical theater of the absurd is real life fears & misconceptions that need to be sorted out by front line physicians. Yet, the misinformation out there, made no clearer by the waffling Dr. Faucis of our pandemic world, is making doctors’ lives LONG on misery, SHORT on solutions.

Davd Soul