We know about long COVID. Should there be a medium COVID?

We know about long COVID. Should there be a medium COVID?

　　Transcript²

　　When COVID-19 symptoms linger for weeks, but not long enough to become long COVID, it's confusing and scary for patients. Doctors say this is common. Should we start talking about medium COVID?

　　STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

　　When our colleague Nina Feldman got sick with omicron, she thought she knew what to expect. She's a health reporter for WHYY in Philadelphia. She's young and otherwise healthy, so she knew of two possibilities - a short case of COVID that didn't harm her too much or long COVID, which was relatively³ rare. What she experienced, though, fell between, so she found out more about what she calls medium COVID.

　　NINA FELDMAN, BYLINE⁴: I got COVID over the holidays. I had a sore throat, was super tired and had to take more than a week off work. I tested negative after eight days and thought I was feeling better. But pretty quickly, it became clear I wasn't. I started getting these waves of extreme fatigue⁵. Soon, I realized they were brought on by physical activity - a walk in the cold, a ride on the exercise bike. I'd get bone crushingly weak a day after a workout. It would take days to recover. I couldn't drink alcohol. Even one glass of wine made me feel like I'd partied all night. All of this lasted for weeks, and I wasn't alone. My friend Kenny Cooper, another reporter at the station, got COVID when I did. Like me, he's physically⁶ active, vaccinated⁷ and boosted. Like me, he thought he knew what to expect from a case of what was almost certainly omicron - quick and mild.

　　KENNY COOPER, BYLINE: Mild for COVID is definitely on a different level.

　　FELDMAN: Kenny was sick for almost two weeks before testing negative. His symptoms kept going for at least two more weeks on top of that. It was scary.

　　COOPER: I just felt like there were weights on my chest. I couldn't sleep properly. Even when I woke up, if I moved around too much, I would start coughing immediately.

　　FELDMAN: His persistent⁸ cough kept him from leaving the house.

　　COOPER: I wasn't able to do much. Even when I wanted to, you know, go out for stories or hang out with friends and family, as soon as the outside air would touch me, I would just start coughing.

　　FELDMAN: Kenny and I have both been covering COVID-19 and the pandemic since it started, but neither of us were prepared for the recovery process to take this long. So was this long COVID? Various doctors and researchers define long COVID differently. Dr. Ben Abramoff treats long COVID patients at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia.

　　BEN ABRAMOFF: It's not always a quick bounce back right away after the initial infection.

　　FELDMAN: He says people like me and Kenny still suffering symptoms six or eight weeks out will usually get over the illness on their own if they take it really easy. If they come to his clinic during that period, which some do, he'll likely send them home and tell them to rest.

　　ABRAMOFF: We start by just taking it slow, working with primary care doctors, not rushing back into everything right at once.

　　FELDMAN: But he says that doesn't mean those six to eight weeks are a cakewalk.

　　ABRAMOFF: People were very sick even if they weren't in the hospital. This is still a very significant viral infection. And sometimes it's just a more gradual recovery process than people's previous viral illnesses.

　　FELDMAN: Abramoff focuses on patients who've been dealing⁹ with COVID symptoms for more than two months. Other doctors start diagnosing long COVID earlier. Dr. Stuart Katz is leading a national study that defines long COVID as symptoms persisting longer than a month. He estimates 30% of people who get COVID have symptoms that last that long. But he says most of those people do get better. If you're still sick after 30 days, it doesn't mean it's forever. Some people just need longer to recover, like I did.

　　STUART KATZ: There's this arbitrary cutoff at 30 days. So it's really more of a continuum.

　　FELDMAN: He also confirmed that other patients experienced the energy crashes I did. The clinical term is post-exertional malaise.

　　KATZ: If they do anything, they're totally wiped out the next day.

　　FELDMAN: I asked him, is it best to just take it easy, not dive back into work or exercise? He says there's not enough data to know yet what exactly to advise, but people should try to listen to their bodies.

　　KATZ: To me, it's just sort of common sense. Like, you know, OK, well, if it makes you feel bad, don't do it.

　　FELDMAN: So that's what I did. I stopped exercising. I didn't drink. And once I learned that it wasn't unusual for symptoms to linger for a couple months, I was less anxious. I stopped worrying that I'd feel this way forever. Understanding it as medium COVID gave me a framework. And for me, resting worked. About eight weeks after testing positive, my life finally got pretty much back to normal. The point here is that even if you don't end up with a debilitating¹⁰, life-altering illness, COVID can require a very slow recovery. And it's important for patients, their families and employers to understand that. I was lucky. I could work from home and control the pace of my day. But what if I worked at a restaurant or any kind of job where I needed to be on my feet all day? And a bout¹ of medium COVID or long COVID can happen to anyone, even young or otherwise healthy people like me. Again, Dr. Abramoff at Penn Medicine.

　　ABRAMOFF: If you're 20 and you get it or you're 30 and you get it, it's not like nothing happens, you know? It's still, you know, something that would kill, like, somebody who's in their 70s and it's the same thing in your body, it's not nothing.

　　FELDMAN: The omicron wave is ebbing¹¹ now, but record numbers of Americans were infected. That means more people than ever before are now recovering from COVID, and they might be for a while. For NPR News, I'm Nina Feldman in Philadelphia.

　　(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

　　INSKEEP: This story comes from NPR's partnership¹² with WHYY and Kaiser Health News.

1 bout   

n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛

参考例句：

• I was suffering with a bout of nerves.我感到一阵紧张。
• That bout of pneumonia enfeebled her.那次肺炎的发作使她虚弱了。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 fatigue   

n.疲劳，劳累

参考例句：

• The old lady can't bear the fatigue of a long journey.这位老妇人不能忍受长途旅行的疲劳。
• I have got over my weakness and fatigue.我已从虚弱和疲劳中恢复过来了。

6 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

7 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

8 persistent   

adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的

参考例句：

• Albert had a persistent headache that lasted for three days.艾伯特连续头痛了三天。
• She felt embarrassed by his persistent attentions.他不时地向她大献殷勤，使她很难为情。

9 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

10 debilitating   

a.使衰弱的

参考例句：

• The debilitating disease made him too weak to work. 这个令他衰弱的病，使他弱到没有办法工作。
• You may soon leave one debilitating condition or relationship forever. 你即将永远地和这段霉运说拜拜了。

11 ebbing   

（指潮水）退( ebb的现在分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落

参考例句：

• The pain was ebbing. 疼痛逐渐减轻了。
• There are indications that his esoteric popularity may be ebbing. 有迹象表明，他神秘的声望可能正在下降。

12 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。