CDC: Post-COVID Conditions Among Adult COVID-19 Survivors Aged 18 - 64 and ≥65 years - United States, March 2020 - November 2021

Summary
What is already known about this topic?

As more persons are exposed to and infected by SARS-CoV-2, reports of patients who experience persistent symptoms or organ dysfunction after acute COVID-19 and develop post-COVID conditions have increased.

What is added by this report?

COVID-19 survivors have twice the risk for developing pulmonary embolism or respiratory conditions; one in five COVID-19 survivors aged 18–64 years and one in four survivors aged ≥65 years experienced at least one incident condition that might be attributable to previous COVID-19.

What are the implications for public health practice?

Implementation of COVID-19 prevention strategies, as well as routine assessment for post-COVID conditions among persons who survive COVID-19, is critical to reducing the incidence and impact of post-COVID conditions, particularly among adults aged ≥65 years.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7121e1.htm?s_cid=mm7121e1_w

 

Pretty big percentage of people with some kind of post-Covid symptom (22%), considering their study design likely underestimates prevalence for a few reasons:

1. People who had an asymptomatic infection or an otherwise undiagnosed infection would have ended up in their control group.
2. Subtracting prevalence in the control group from prevalence in the Covid group doesn't make sense when the prevalences are high (38% and 16%). Could well be that some of the people they subtracted out did in fact have post-Covid symptoms as well.
3. Symptoms had to end up in health records to be counted.

 

And I assume this is before Omicron?

 

Interesting to note the high representation for acute MI, acute PE and thromboembolic events compared to the relatively low increased RR for coagulation and haemorrhagic disorders.

 

NYT More than 1 in 5 adult Covid survivors in the U.S. may develop long Covid, a C.D.C. study suggests

quote:
The C.D.C. authors concluded that post-Covid conditions might “affect a patient’s ability to contribute to the work force and might have economic consequences for survivors and their dependents.” They added that “care requirements might place a strain on health services” in “communities that experience heavy Covid-19 case surges.”

Dr. Al-Aly said he agreed that people who had Covid should be medically evaluated for potential new health problems.

“Now that we are in possession of knowledge that Covid-19 can lead to serious long-term consequences,” he added, “we need to develop additional tools to reduce the risk of long Covid.”

 

My favorite thing from this paper is the reaction from some of the minimizers who use the word "might" as a gotcha, from the "might be caused by Covid". Literally the entire evidence base for psychosomatic medicine is lower than "might", and they don't object to that, which shows how hypocritical it all is.

Papers like this are exposing the deep rot of pseudoscience that has corrupted medicine. If only people in the profession cared about that...

 

From the article, bolding for emphasis.
“Those aged 18 to 64 had a 10 percent to 110 percent greater risk than uninfected people of developing 22 of the health conditions. But in that age group, Covid survivors were no more likely than uninfected people to develop most mental health conditions, substance use disorders or strokes and similar cerebrovascular conditions.”

“The C.D.C. authors concluded that post-Covid conditions might “affect a patient’s ability to contribute to the work force and might have economic consequences for survivors and their dependents.” They added that “care requirements might place a strain on health services” in “communities that experience heavy Covid-19 case surges.”
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With USA health insurance, “care” as in home health care, is financially out of reach for many patients.