00:00:00
Co has reshaped our relationship with
00:00:01
work in so many ways and for people
00:00:03
suffering from long covid career paths
00:00:05
have been dramatically derailed
00:00:06
according to a new article in the
00:00:07
journal um e economists estimate that
00:00:11
long Co has pushed about 1 million
00:00:13
Americans out of the labor force more
00:00:14
than 5% of adults in the US have long Co
00:00:17
and is the most prevalent among people
00:00:18
in their Prime working years the federal
00:00:20
government has said long Co can be
00:00:21
classified as a disability allowing
00:00:23
workers to seek accommodations like
00:00:24
remote work and flexible hours Jeff talk
00:00:26
a little bit about it CU it's back CO's
00:00:28
back I went to the Democrat naal imtion
00:00:30
has gotten Co I still have not gotten
00:00:32
covid which is astonishing yeah it's
00:00:33
amazing I know I'm a unicorn um but talk
00:00:36
a little bit about what's happening on
00:00:37
the ground now and then long covid in in
00:00:40
specifics then George as someone who's
00:00:42
experienced long covid I'd love to hear
00:00:44
from you go ahead so so first let me
00:00:46
just briefly talk about the vaccine is
00:00:48
available soon um it's the um the the
00:00:51
new vaccine covers the most common
00:00:53
variant right now it's the Omicron uh KP
00:00:57
uh 21 that's the vaccine that's the
00:00:59
variant that the vaccine now covers
00:01:01
which is going to cover the most common
00:01:03
forms of covid the most common 37% of
00:01:05
covid cases are uh KP
00:01:08
311 um and um you know like the
00:01:11
influenza virus the covid virus changes
00:01:14
its uh surface proteins it's called the
00:01:16
spike proteins and so you need to be
00:01:18
updated on the vaccine uh vaccines give
00:01:21
you about four months of durable uh
00:01:23
immunity that's why it's important to
00:01:25
get your boosters as well but uh
00:01:27
everybody 6 months or older should get
00:01:30
uh this new vaccine um and the issue of
00:01:33
long Co is really important they
00:01:35
estimate that 30% of people have some
00:01:38
form of long covid symptoms who've had
00:01:40
covid and about 1 to 5% of people have
00:01:43
serious long-term covid symptoms um and
00:01:45
I think a lot of it goes unrecognized as
00:01:48
uh just depression fatigue anxiety but
00:01:51
these are all possibly um elements of
00:01:53
long Co and it affects literally every
00:01:56
body system every organ system is
00:01:58
affected by long Co it's your neurologic
00:02:01
system it's your kidneys it's your liver
00:02:03
it's your skin it's your joints all
00:02:05
these things um and it's a real thing I
00:02:07
I have I can I can off the top of my
00:02:10
head I have two colleagues Who I Really
00:02:12
respect and admire one is a surgeon and
00:02:14
one is a nurse that I work with who have
00:02:16
basically uh been unable to work one
00:02:19
retired they basically just uh felt that
00:02:22
uh he couldn't continue uh feeling the
00:02:24
way he was feeling brain fog is a really
00:02:26
important element of long Co um and uh
00:02:29
you know Ely for him he's got so many
00:02:31
hobbies and interests and he you know
00:02:32
he's my age and so it's you know maybe
00:02:34
it was time take it seriously correct
00:02:36
George I mean this is something you you
00:02:39
had I have several friends uh who have
00:02:41
it who've written about it Jen Senor
00:02:43
Laura holsen um and very severe and a
00:02:47
lot of people they still suffer from
00:02:48
people not believing them in some like
00:02:50
it same thing with Lyme disease or uh
00:02:53
some of the other um diseases in this
00:02:56
genre of I'm tired right essentially uh
00:02:59
talk a little a little bit about your
00:03:00
experience oh Jeff you just brought me
00:03:02
back to some of the things that I were
00:03:05
was feeling at the time neurological I
00:03:08
couldn't go out in certain public I
00:03:11
would start to have a like a nervous
00:03:14
system breakdown uh on a Subway or in a
00:03:19
theater that's where I had my first
00:03:21
panic attack and this was this had never
00:03:24
I know history of this whatsoever and
00:03:27
then the feeling that I'm having a heart
00:03:28
attack I couldn't be around other people
00:03:32
which just sort of added crowds of
00:03:34
people I should say which just sort of
00:03:36
added to uh the loneliness isolation
00:03:39
aspect which is part of this um you know
00:03:42
long covid effect go what happened like
00:03:45
how did it progress I the heart attack
00:03:48
feeling the uh Panic feeling the
00:03:51
neurological all of that stuff and the
00:03:53
fatigue there was brain fog and
00:03:55
eventually we're going back two years
00:03:57
and eventually just kind of
00:04:00
um over time when I went to the covid
00:04:02
Care Center at Mount Si the doctor with
00:04:06
whom I spoke believed me and as I gave
00:04:09
her my Litany of symptoms knotted her
00:04:11
head she was the first one she kind of
00:04:13
knotted her head and she said we're
00:04:15
seeing a ton of this uh so if it makes
00:04:17
you feel less lonely in your experience
00:04:21
let that be a comfort which it was and
00:04:23
she said the bad news is that there is
00:04:25
nothing we can do you just kind of have
00:04:27
to ride it out and that was a pain in
00:04:29
the ass but eventually she was right she
00:04:31
said it could be 6 months could be a
00:04:32
year it
00:04:34
was out a year out before I started to
00:04:38
feel sort of normal when you're in uh
00:04:39
medical school one of the things you
00:04:41
learn uh to differentiate and understand
00:04:43
the difference between signs and
00:04:45
symptoms right so symptoms are things
00:04:47
like that you're feeling like fatigue uh
00:04:50
my muscles hurt you know these are more
00:04:52
of the subjective things there are
00:04:54
actually signs of of as well and signs
00:04:56
are things like fever you know elevated
00:04:59
heart rate um you know laboratory
00:05:02
studies elevation sedimentation rate uh
00:05:04
in your blood Etc and more and more as
00:05:07
people are studying this they're really
00:05:09
understanding that uh long covid has
00:05:12
sign both signs and symptoms and so
00:05:14
doctors are more astute now about
00:05:16
looking for those signs because they're
00:05:18
objective as well as the subjective
00:05:20
Sensations and believing people when
00:05:22
they say exactly what I could not have
00:05:24
worked in an office I I was I had the
00:05:26
Good Fortune of doing whatever I do to
00:05:28
make a living from home or wherever but
00:05:31
working in an office would have been a
00:05:33
problem so when should people take these
00:05:35
Lou I'm just curious you you are going
00:05:37
to get your covid-19 vaccine I hope um
00:05:40
but you're an adult um how do younger
00:05:42
people I don't think younger people are
00:05:44
thinking about this it's sort of like a
00:05:45
flu vac vaccine or whatever um the CDC
00:05:49
will recommend that adults and children
00:05:50
six months and older get updated
00:05:52
vaccines um are you how do you look at
00:05:55
it well I mean I think for a lot of
00:05:57
people my age um and maybe more people
00:05:59
people in general uh we every once in a
00:06:01
while we get a little bit of a cold or
00:06:03
cough or something like that and we're
00:06:04
all like oh oh wait could it be the old
00:06:07
friend you know is are they back um but
00:06:11
yeah I think there's definitely um
00:06:12
especially people with someone important
00:06:13
in their lives or some kind of purpose
00:06:15
um if they go to work if they have uh
00:06:18
they live with their grandparents or
00:06:19
they have people within their Network
00:06:21
that are more susceptible I think people
00:06:22
who care care and people who don't don't
00:06:25
um so I'm definitely a bit behind I
00:06:27
probably definitely do for a new vaccine
00:06:30
so I actually you know what maybe even
00:06:32
to answer your question even better I
00:06:33
didn't even know there was a new vaccine
00:06:35
till just now so okay maybe maybe that's
00:06:37
an answer itself yeah this is well they
00:06:40
need to roll out that information thing
00:06:42
people ignore Co at their own RIS Ry
00:06:45
campaign or something like that a nice
00:06:46
like handsome advertisement to grab all
00:06:48
our attention yeah when should you take
00:06:50
it Jeff I've been told by my doctors
00:06:52
that you should take it later in this
00:06:54
later in September not to wait and then
00:06:57
again the booster again and the flu
00:06:59
vaccine again in January February yes so
00:07:03
so a couple things you can take multi
00:07:04
you can take several vaccines at the
00:07:06
same time there's no Contra indication
00:07:07
to getting the flu vaccine and the covid
00:07:09
vaccine at the same time um the um if
00:07:14
you've had covid in the last 3 months uh
00:07:16
don't get the vaccine until about 3
00:07:18
months have expired and not that it's
00:07:20
dangerous to get it the thing is that
00:07:22
the actual fact of having covid is going
00:07:24
to give you immunity so you want to it's
00:07:26
like putting gas in your car after you
00:07:28
went you know like one one exit there's
00:07:30
no point in doing that wait till your
00:07:31
gas tank is low and then fill it up
00:07:33
again with your vaccine um so you should
00:07:37
get it I mean the the there's a spike in
00:07:39
the winter of Co and it's for several
00:07:41
reasons one is temperature uh and the
00:07:43
other is that people are tend to be
00:07:44
inside more and it's more transmissible
00:07:47
you know between people so you should
00:07:49
get it as soon as it's available
00:07:51
provided that you haven't had Co in the
00:07:52
last 3 months
