Experiences of Canadians with long-term symptoms following COVID-19, 2023, Kuang et al

[Mij]

The report is out. Confirms that half of the population who report symptoms don't get better even after a year! Data speaks.


https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-006-x/2023001/article/00015-eng.pdf

 

[EndME]

Overview of the study

Using data from the 2023 Canadian COVID-19 Antibody and Health Survey – Follow-up questionnaire (CCAHS- FQ),1 this article provides updated estimates on COVID-19 infections and reinfections among Canadian adults, and describes the nature of symptoms experienced as a result of infection. Results are compared to those from the Canadian COVID-19 Antibody and Health Survey – Cycle 2 (CCAHS-2), which was conducted in 2022, one year before CCAHS-FQ.2 This article also describes the experiences of Canadians who reported long-term symptoms consistent with post COVID-19 condition or long COVID, including the severity of symptoms, their experiences with the health care system, and the impact on their daily lives. Finally, this article also provides updates of the vaccination status of Canadian adults.

• As of June 2023, about two-thirds of Canadian adults reported at least one confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infection, with many reporting more than one infection since the beginning of the pandemic.
  
  
• Multiple infections were more commonly reported among certain racialized groups; Black Canadians were most likely to report multiple infections compared to other racialized groups.
  
  
• About 3.5 million Canadian adults reported experiencing long-term symptoms following a COVID-19 infection; 2.1 million reported they were still experiencing those symptoms as of June 2023. Almost half of those still experiencing symptoms reported they have not seen any improvement in symptoms over time.
  
  
• Among Canadians who were in school or employed and dealing with long-term symptoms, more than 1 in 5 missed days of school or work, missing 24 days on average.
  
  
• About 40% of those with long-term symptoms who sought healthcare about their symptoms reported difficulties with access.
  
  
• Adults with chronic conditions and senior adults were more likely to have been vaccinated in the 6 months prior to June 2023.
  

 

[rvallee]

Oops. But the tiny genie in the hopium pipe very confidently told the medical professionals that this would never happen, then when it started to happen, that it would just go away like maaaaaagic! Did the tiny genie in the hopium pipe lie? Say it ain't so!

Filed under "we done goofed so hard that we can't even admit it and we have nothing to work with anyway":

 

[rvallee]

Several people noticed that last year's StatCan data reported 1.4M people with suspected Long Covid. This year's report is 3.5M, with 58% of those reporting to have ever had symptoms still have them.

This image made the rounds and was roundly ridiculed by MDs, but it's tracking rather well. Normally where science makes projections, you adjust the models based on the data you get over time, giving you a better model. In real science, anyway. Evidence-based medicine, however, is a very different approach.

Multiple scenarios were presented, and the one above matches the 15% risk per infection.

So far, basically very little interest over this outside of the already-concerned. Hey, maybe it will all blow over on its own soon. Who knows?

 

[LarsSG]

This is an interesting, though not surprising, bit of data:

"Among Canadians who reported ever experiencing longterm symptoms, females (33.0%) were less likely than males (53.1%) to report a resolution of their symptoms and experienced their symptoms longer on average"

Multiple scenarios were presented, and the one above matches the 15% risk per infection.

To be fair, there is likely a significant overestimation of LC incidence per infection in this data because only 65% of Canadians thought they had ever had Covid up to June 2023 and only 20% thought they had more than one infection. I'm sure the real numbers are much higher with asymptomatic infections and "just a cold" infections. Even seroprevalence to June 2023 was about 78%. We've also seen in data from the ONS and from Germany that few people are uninfected and having had more than one infection is the norm. Presumably those people who didn't know they had Covid would be significantly less likely to have LC (both less likely to get it and less likely to think they haven't had Covid if they did have long-term symptoms).

 

[rvallee]

Moved post

Even mild cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection are at risk of becoming long covid, and these results suggest the threat increases with multiple infections.

Tweet has a link to this week's StatCan report and shows this image:

 

[SNT Gatchaman]

Just to note that the above tweet is from Canada's Chief Scientist. Nitter thread here.

 

[SNT Gatchaman]

John Snow Project: “No one I know has Long Covid”

If you know nine people, you know someone with Long Covid - according to the latest data from Canada.

When faced with the Statistics Canada report, some commentators have suggested that the data simply prove early infection with the original wild type variant of SARS-CoV-2 has a greater risk of Long Covid, but it is difficult to see how cumulative risk increases as a result of early infection. Others have called the sample size and methodology into question, but this ignores the trend, which these commentators assured the world would go down.

Others say, “This is nonsense, I don’t know anyone with Long Covid,” ignoring the fact that people often conceal health conditions and do so for a variety of reasons. Maybe they don’t want to admit to themselves that they have a problem? Or maybe they don’t want to put their job or promotion at risk? Perhaps they don’t feel comfortable sharing the knowledge with you because they’ve heard you loudly proclaiming that Long Covid isn’t real and the world “overreacted to a cold”?

Whatever the reason, the question the world now faces is whether governments are going to continue to play pretend or whether they will admit there is a problem? The US Department of Health and Human Services has recently established an advisory committee on Long Covid and the European Union has established a similar body, which suggests there is some governmental recognition of the risks this condition poses.

According to the Canadian data, since summer 2022, an additional 2 million people have developed Long Covid.

 

[Mij]

I went to the grocery store today and only one person was wearing a mask, she was a caretaker or relative of an elderly women who wasn't wearing a mask

Vaccination rates are very low too.

Today, a hospital in my city has a 20 hr wait time in the ER to see an M.D. I get my news info from ER M.Ds on X, the 2 major news networks here are not reporting this at all.