By Maggie Carey
WKTV Contributor
If you’re familiar with the term COVID, you may have also heard of “Long COVID.”
Long COVID is another way of referring to Post-COVID Conditions. The CDC states that “Post-COVID Conditions are a wide range of new, returning, or ongoing health problems that people experience after being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19”. Symptoms can include brain fog, headaches, cough, and joint pain. Although most cases are all different and there is no true set of symptoms. The CDC also states that there is no test to determine if the symptoms presented are caused by COVID-19.
Recent findings show that people who catch Omicron are less likely to get Long Covid. Since the spread of Omicron, which began in late 2021, COVID-19 deaths became a rarity and the Omicron variant carries a lower threat of lingering complications.
John Willan, a hematologist who works at the University of Oxford and Wexham Park Hospital, reported that Long COVID symptoms after three months of infection were down to 14% with Omicron. To put in perspective, the original coronavirus strain was a 46% risk of Long COVID complications and symptoms.
This decreasing trend was found across both healthy people and vulnerable populations. A study from the Lancet found the risk of Long COVID in cancer patients fell from 17% in 2021 to a mere 6% once cases shifted to the Omicron variant.
So what is different with Omicron?
The Omicron variant has a different, milder, biological makeup. It tends to cause mild disease and when an acute illness happens, Omicron is much less likely to land patients in the hospital. Just being in the hospital with COVID-19 is a major risk factor for Long COVID.
Omicron also does not seem to be spreading to vital organs like previous strains were. Without the spread, someone who is infected may not produce acute illness symptoms and is now less likely to end up with Long COVID as well. There is also evidence from Yale Medicine to support that vaccination provides a protective barrier against Long Covid.
To learn more about the Omicron virus and stay up to date with COVID-related news visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 website at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html .
