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As has been discussed in previous articles, Long COVID is a serious potential outcome of a COVID-19 infection, with additional re-infections of COVID increasing the chance of someone getting Long COVID. A myth that has been persistent is that only those who have experienced a severe bout of COVID-19 will get Long COVID. As experts told the AmNews, this is not correct.

When asked whether the myth is true, Lisa Sanders MD, medical director of the Yale New Haven Health Systems Long COVID Consultation Clinic said, “Absolutely not. In fact, I think the people who are most outraged are the people [who were] sick for less than a day and two weeks later [feel] tired and then two weeks later, the fatigue [is] overwhelming.” 

Sanders also said that patients who contracted COVID-19 back in March of 2020 “when we really didn’t know anything and it was a very serious disease and some of those people still have scars from…they have injuries that they sustained (from) being critically ill that stay with them, so certainly having a severe disease does not prevent Long COVID, but having a mild disease doesn’t, either.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, “The severity of COVID-19 symptoms can range from very mild to severe. Some people may have only a few symptoms. Some people may have no symptoms at all, but can still spread it. This is called asymptomatic transmission. Some people may experience worsened symptoms, such as worsened shortness of breath and pneumonia, about a week after symptoms start.” 

Researchers at Harvard University Medical School found in a study that “[COVID] long haulers were most likely to be older, female, and have existing health conditions such as hypertension, chronic lung disease, obesity, diabetes, and depression.” The study also found that “(b)oth narrow definition and broad definition long haulers displayed a higher incidence of pre-pandemic comorbidities than non-long haulers, with narrow-definition long haulers having a higher pre-pandemic incidence of cardiovascular, pulmonary, endocrine, and other conditions such as depression, liver disease, and arthritis.” Black and brown Americans are more likely to have one or more of these comorbidities.

Lindsay McAlpline, MD, director of the Yale NeuroCOVID Clinic told the AmNews that the myth that Long COVID only affected people who had severe COVID-19 cases has even proliferated in the medical community. 

According to McAlpine, “when we would present to our colleagues and at conferences, that was a big myth in the medical community, too; it just wasn’t in the public population and people were really surprised and scared. I think that really anybody with a COVID-19 illness would be at risk because initially, a lot of our first-wave participants were in the hospital. Not all of them were in the ICU, but a lot of them were hospitalized. [However, a large number] of our study cohort  had mild illnesses at home. I’ve even had some people that had the sniffles and they got Long COVID.”

As to where we are with COVID and Long COVID, according to McAlpine, “I think it really is not over when it comes to anybody suffering from Long COVID because we don’t have specific treatments for Long COVID and there’s still a lot of people suffering and with significant disability (who) can’t go back to work, can’t get back to their normal lives, need treatment, [and] need answers.”For additional resources about COVID-19, visit www1.nyc.gov/site/coronavirus/index.page or call 311. COVID-19 testing, masks, and vaccination resources can also be accessed on the AmNews COVID-19 page: www.amsterdamnews.com/covid/.

The post Factcheck: False—Only people who have experienced severe cases go on to have Long COVID appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

Tom Perez, a Senior Advisor and Assistant to President Joe Biden, spoke with the Amsterdam News for a Q & A about the Medicare Price Negotiation and the first 10 drugs to be selected for price negotiation. Perez who also serves as Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, previously served as a former Montgomery County, MD Council member and as Secretary of Labor under President Obama.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.                                       

AmNews: Please describe the Medicare price negotiation and the first 10 drugs selected

The Center for Medicare Medicaid services released the first 10 drugs selected for Medicare price negotiation. In plain English here’s what’s been going on. When we established Medicare and the prescription drug benefits, Medicare lacked the legal authority to negotiate on behalf of consumers and so you have a situation that is unique here in the United States where we can’t negotiate on behalf of consumers but around the world they are negotiating lower prices.  So you look at the drug Xarelto and you pay so much more here in the United States than you do elsewhere, and by the way the Department of Veteran Affairs on behalf of our service members has the authority to negotiate lower prices but Medicare and Medicaid didn’t until the inflation reduction act.  

Up to 9 million uh will be able to benefit from the new negotiated drug prices for the first 10 drugs that have been announced. In 2022 alone these nine million seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries spent over 3.4 billion dollars out of pocket on just these 10 drugs. This is what the inflation reduction Act was about. This is about putting the seniors in a better position by negotiating better prices that’s what this is about.  

AmNews: Could you speak about the impact this will have on Black and Brown communities as well as individuals suffering from health disparities? 

Look at the disproportionate number of black people who have diabetes, who have kidney conditions, heart conditions, blood conditions, those disparities are real we have to address them.  The reason this is a big deal for African Americans is because when you look at the 10 drugs that are the subject of negotiation, the first ten that have been chosen, they’re diabetes drugs, they’re drugs for heart conditions, for blood clots, drugs for kidney issues. This is going to put more money in the pockets of all seniors and it’s

going to disproportionately help African Americans because African-Americans are disproportionately affected by the diseases that I just discussed and that’s why this is a big deal and this is a big day and it’s really important for us to get this word out. 

AmNews: What does this mean for families that are secondarily impacted by their family member’s illness?

When you have to decide between food and medicine that’s a decision that nobody should ever have to make, yet that’s a decision that so many people are making across this country right now because the cost of their medication for diabetes or for their heart condition is so expensive and so this is about making life better for people, putting money in your pockets. Health Care should be a right for all and not a privilege for a few and if you can’t afford the health care that’s going to keep you alive well that’s just not who we are as a nation and so I think what this is going to mean for people is  the dignity of life where you are able to have more money in your pocket. These are not luxury drugs. These are not kind of nice to have, these are drugs that are keeping you alive and thriving day in and day out.

The post White Discusses the First 10 Drugs Selected for Medicare Price Negotiation appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here