3alarmer

...I was fortunate with Covid. we were both retired already, and able to isolate within reason for the period prior to vaccine availability. I did contract Covid once (after vaccination), which was confirmed by the available (by then) home tests. Because of my age (pretty damn old), I was able to call my GP's office, and the guy on call wrote me for Paxlovid right away.

Which was fortunate, because by the time I got the Paxlovid, I was noticing some genuine difficulty breathing, mostly due to advancing congestion in the airways.

All I can share with you is that I did manage to lose about 4-5 years in my 50's, to what was then called CFIDS. It was an unhappy time, but I did spontaneously recover eventually. All the CFIDS people, who have been more or less invisible for the past 40 years, since the CDC decided it's all in your head, are encouraged by the long Covid sufferers. The thinking goes that if there are that many of them, and the viral agent of causation is well documented, it will convince the people who matter that a real research funding push is needed for long viral immune dysfunction syndromes.

I am a little less hopeful, because people with these illnesses seem to drop off the map. The only ones aware of their existence are themselves and a contingent of family members who end up as caregivers.

There have been a number of NY Times pieces recently on long Covid, and there's one reporter covering CFIDS studies. The research money just isn't there, yet. I only follow the news on it, because I still know people who never fully recovered from CFIDS.