Dr. Angel Lazo from the COVID-19 Institute of New Jersey says 'most long-haulers are typically younger individuals' and that 'the number-one complaint from individuals … is that they don't feel the same as before they were actually infected.'
arrowMatt Rourke/AP/Shutterstock. But even as cases and hospitalizations drop, one research institute in the Garden State is keeping its focus on the long-term effects of catching the disease.
Well, we're seeing pretty much the whole gamut. The number-one complaint from individuals — and this is universal for just about all of them — is that they don't feel the same as before they were actually infected. One of the problems with long-haulers is that when they start getting these symptoms — this chronic fatigue, this brain fog — it’s in a lot of individuals who are very active. They go to the gym one or two hours a day, and they try to push through this disease.Omicron is milder than past variants such as Delta. But it spreads faster, and as you mentioned, has hit more people.
There are also several treatment buckets that we can put individuals into based on their symptoms. Some of them have more of an autoimmune type of disorder, for example, like rheumatoid arthritis. We have an idea as to what are effective therapies based on what we've used for other similar diseases. What's your take on the recent relaxation of restrictions such as mask and vaccine mandates in New York and New Jersey, given the chances of long COVID?