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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024_05_16 SSchumacher_Long COVIDFrom:Stephen Schumacher To:Board of Health Subject:Background for Dr. Berry"s Long COVID agenda item Date:Thursday, May 16, 2024 2:12:42 PM ALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them. https://www.science.org/content/article/rare-link-between-coronavirus-vaccines-and-long-covid-illness-starts-gain- acceptance Rare link between coronavirus vaccines and Long Covid-like illness starts to gain acceptance Studies probe unusual cases of neurologic complications, blood pressure swings, and other side effects By Gretchen Vogel, Jennifer Couzin-Frankel Science Insider, Jul 3 2023, 4:30 p.m. ET COVID-19 vaccines have saved millions of lives, and the world is gearing up for a new round of boosters. But like all vaccines, those targeting the coronavirus can cause side effects in some people, including rare cases of abnormal blood clotting and heart inflammation. Another apparent complication, a debilitating suite of symptoms that resembles Long Covid, has been more elusive, its link to vaccination unclear and its diagnostic features ill-defined. But in recent months, what some call Long Vax has gained wider acceptance among doctors and scientists, and some are now working to better understand and treat its symptoms. ... Some people appear susceptible to complications after both infection and vaccination, a double vulnerability that can put them in an agonizing situation­eschewing more vaccine doses, often on the advice of their doctors, but also fearing the hazards of Long Covid. Reddy falls into this category. She caught the virus in early 2020 while caring for an infected patient and developed Long Covid, including POTS. Her symptoms dramatically worsened after her first vaccine dose. An emergency medicine physician in New York City, Saleena Subaiya, experienced the same phenomenon in reverse. Within 24 hours of the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine in January 2021, they developed severe cognitive impairment, fatigue, and a loss of balance. Subaiya improved somewhat over the next year, but was forced to switch to a part-time research job. Then in December 2021, they were hit by Omicron and relapsed. Postvaccination illness is "a long, relentless disease," says Lawrence Purpura, an infectiousdisease specialist at Columbia University who isalso Subaiya's partner­and who treats both LongCovid patients and those with chronic symptoms after vaccination. ... (c) 2024 American Association for the Advancement of Science. ---https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/4512451-is-it-long-covid-or-long-vax-does-the-government-want-to-know/ Is it long COVID or long vax? Does the government want to know? by Dr. Pierre Kory and Dr. Paul MarikThe Hill, 03/06/24 1:30 PM ET Millions of Americans are still suffering monthsor even years after they were infected withCOVID. Long COVID as it's commonly known is aserious and poorly understood problem. But thereis also growing evidence that the COVID vaccine could cause a similar disease. We need our government health agencies to take aserious look at this condition and stopstigmatizing doctors and patients who reportthese findings so we can get people the help they need. We are critical care physicians with the FLCCCAlliance (the Front Line COVID-19 Critical CareAlliance) who have treated COVID patientsthroughout the pandemic. One of us recentlyopened a private practice focused on patients with long COVID. In two years, the practice has evaluated andtreated over 1,000 individuals. Approximately 70percent of these patients said their reportedsymptoms occurred in the minutes, hours, days andweeks after COVID vaccination, as opposed toafter COVID infection. This could be tied to anew condition that's flown under the radar until recently. This syndrome, dubbed "long vax," is juststarting to make its way into the medicalliterature. Dr. Harlan Krumholz at the YaleSchool of Medicine<https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/generalneurology/107644>published a survey of 241 patients who described post-COVIDvaccination symptoms of exercise intolerance,excessive fatigue, numbness, brain fog andneuropathy, a nervous system disorder that cancause pain, tingling sensations, numbness orweakness. Long COVID patients were excluded fromthe study, which is now undergoing peer review. https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/generalneurology/107644 The concern is that our findings, <https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.09.23298266v1>Krumholz's study, and any reports of adverse events fromCOVID-19 vaccination, will be subject to the sameinstitutional censorship we saw throughout thepandemic. Suppressing this information risks creating an even bigger disaster. There is widespread alarm about autoimmunediseases reaching"<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/autoimmunity-has-reached-epidemic-levels-we-need-urgent-action-to-address-it/>epidemic levels." Much of this is<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41584-023-00964-y>attributable to COVID, and there is mounting evidence thatCOVID vaccinations may have<https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34280851/>contributed to this trend as well. Similarly, autoimmunediseases, particularly<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00296-023-05319-0>autoimmune rheumatic diseases, can<https://hms.harvard.edu/news/clue-long-covid-patients-rheumatic-diseases>increase a person's chance of developing long COVID. Thismeans we could see an explosion of long COVID ­and long vax ­ in the months and years ahead. America's health agencies need to snap intoaction to help study this problem so we canbetter understand and treat these conditions.Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much hopeof this happening. The National Institutes ofHealth is fixated on studying the effect of<https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/31/nih-to-test-pfizer-paxlovid-other-treatments-as-long-covid-therapies.html>Paxlovid, an antiviral COVID treatment, to treat long COVIDand long vax, despite it having no proven effect on autoimmune disease. At the same time, court cases such as<https://www.oyez.org/cases/2023/23-411>Murthy v. Missouri are challenging the pressure the Bidenadministration put on social media companies tosuppress discussion of alternative COVIDtreatments while they pushed the mass vaccination campaign. As physicians who have dedicated our lives tohealing people, we find it hard to stomach thatthe government has abused its power in this way.Our health agencies have been coopted by industryand political forces, leaving millions of peoplevulnerable to injury, suffering and death, inmany cases without any recourse. Until ourleaders in Washington step up and take theseproblems seriously, it's up to physicians andaffected patients to share our knowledge and forge solutions. To be sure, the Senate HELP Committee recently <https://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/addressing-long-covid-advancing-research-and-improving-patient-care>took up the issue of long COVID, but it simply was not a serious effort. Without an honest accounting ofwhat went wrong, the last thing we should do isgive the government more power over our healthcare decisions. Pierre Kory, MD is president and chief medicalofficer and Paul Marik, MD is chief scientificofficer at the<https://covid19criticalcare.com/>Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance.