A Letter to Our Politicians — On Behalf of All Long Haulers
Recovery from COVID is not simply a binary case of death or recovered, let’s take this into consideration when deciding the fate of our unvaccinated children.
I wanted to reach out to you as I feel like this topic is very much lacking in consideration, yet reflects the feelings of hundreds of thousands, if not millions across the country, and has ruined many, many lives.
I would be immensely grateful to see the topic of Long Covid being considered more when it comes to policy making. I also think it is right that the public are more aware that this illness is not a simple, binary case of die or recover as I will seek to explain below.
Ifirst contracted covid-19 at the very end of September. Like many people, I suffered very mild symptoms including a fever and cough, before returning to my normal life a week later. Before I had covid, my mum had actually warned me that some people were suffering from this ‘long covid’ and me, being a fit, healthy (and also stupid) 22 year old, laughed at this suggestion, rather ironically.
Two weeks on from my initial infection I was hit suddenly with a wave of Long Covid symptoms, and was truly horrified at what was happening to my brain and body. I felt drained and broken, and most scarily of all, I felt as though a foreign body was inside my head — I could no longer hold even a conversation, yet alone work.
For the last 7 months I have been unable to function in any sort of capacity. I am a former GB international judo athlete, so I know what it feels like to be run-down, tired and have had my fair share of illnesses and injuries, but nothing comes close to this experience following COVID. For months I had a resting heart rate of 120bpm, and also what I can only describe as episodes of psychosis-type paranoia. Along with this I spent weeks in bed unable to move, yet I also was unable to sleep more than 2–3 hours a night.
I won’t bore you by listing the other symptoms I have been suffering but sadly my experience is not an anomaly, nor is it even one of the worst cases of this terrible post-viral illness.
Nowadays, though improving, I am still a long way from recovery and struggle to come to terms with the fact that I am no longer capable of the mental or physical demands I used to endure — and I mourn my former self.
However, I actually consider myself one of the lucky ones. I can walk and do some basic tasks, when there are many who are affected far more seriously, such as being bed bound 15 months on and unable to even read. In some tragic cases, like that of Heidi Ferrer, any sort of quality of life seems so distant that the only option seemed to be to take her own life.
I also want to bring awareness to this condition because for so many, receiving any sort of diagnosis or understanding from Doctors or even sometimes family/ friends is impossible. Many are brilliant of course, but so many are simply unaware and I think this stems from no mention of the long term effects when it comes to government advice.
Long Covid is also often dismissed as simply anxiety or being a bit tired, a view that I totally understand because I used to think this myself. However I cannot express the bone-crushing fatigue or mental incapacity that this condition produces having now experienced it myself.
Thankfully, there is now some research which is revealing the underlying pathology of the condition. Work has shown that the virus can actually damage the brain as well as existing within our white blood cells which causes this whole host of issues, but still so many are unaware.
They also have discovered that the virus can potentially cause brain shrinkage and early markers of Parkinsons, something that is also incredibly worrying.
I want experiences like mine to heed warning for other young and healthy individuals — I understand the death risk is low but we are now looking at figures that suggest 10–30% of COVID cases end up being Long Haulers, this is simply not ok.
Long Covid is not just feeling a bit tired for a few months, it is truly disabling. I hope that my experience serves as a warning for caution amongst other youngsters and also to those making decisions on policy — we might be seeing lower death rates but we cannot gamble with our children’s lives, and let them catch a virus where there is a 10% chance of months of incapacitation following.
Finally, I hope that you can help to make sure Long Covid is at least considered when it comes to policy making around our unvaccinated and therefore vulnerable kids. I completely understand this is a difficult topic, but I want at least the information to be considered when it comes to the tough decisions of masks in schools, vaccines etc. However, I think such a risk of disability within our future generation is not something to turn our noses up at and therefore must be considered.
I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to read this and I would also be more than happy to answer any questions you may have!
Harry
Sources:
Effects of COVID on the brain: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.23.432474v1.full
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.11.21258690v1.full.pdf
Heid’s Tragic Story:
https://people.com/tv/dawsons-creek-writer-dies-by-suicide-after-year-long-covid-battle/
My TikTok & YouTube! Where I share my tips for recovery & the latest research:
