The United States has already lost 160,000 people to COVID-19. Most people know only a small percentage of people infected with the coronavirus succumb to the virus, but that doesn’t mean there are no long-term effects after someone has recovered from the virus.
Because the virus is so new it is difficult to determine what some of the longer lasting impacts are on the people who have had the virus, but a recent article from the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences indicates there are many people who were diagnosed with the virus months ago who are experiencing longer lasting health concerns.
People who were infected with the virus have reported a long list of persistent maladies from COVID-19 including fatigue, a racing heartbeat, shortness of breath, achy joints, brain fog, a chronic loss of smell and damage to the heart, lungs, kidneys, and brain.
There are some studies that have been done on the long lasting effects from the virus. The AAAS reported that one study showed that 87 percent of patients in Italy who were hospitalized for COVID-19 were still struggling with some of these types of issue months after they were released from the hospital. The COVID Symptom Study uses an app available to millions of people in the United States, United Kingdom and Sweden, which shows that between 10 to 15 percent of people infected with the virus, some who only suffered from mild cases, “don’t quickly recover,” from the virus according to the AAAS.
If there are long-lasting health issues associated with the coronavirus it could lead to chronic disease for some people health experts caution. The virus is going to require Social Security to take a look at COVID-19 as a potential disabling condition related to disability benefits if evidence shows that people who were infected with the virus suffer from signification impairments that prevent people from working.
