Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Small Study Details Lingering Symptoms For Covid Patients
CIDRAP: Persistent COVID-19 Symptoms Detailed Months After Recovery
One third of symptomatic COVID-19 patients continued to experience symptoms about 5.6 months after their infection began, according to a research letter published late last week in JAMA Network Open. The researchers noted that their study was purely descriptive because of the small participant number. University of Washington researchers received 117 surveys from COVID-19 patients between August and November 2020. Of these, 11 (6.2%) were asymptomatic, 150 (84.7%) were outpatients with mild symptoms, and 16 (9.0%) needed hospitalization. (2/22)
AP: Not To Be Sniffed At: Agony Of Post-COVID-19 Loss Of Smell
The doctor slid a miniature camera into the patient’s right nostril, making her whole nose glow red with its bright miniature light. “Tickles a bit, eh?” he asked as he rummaged around her nasal passages, the discomfort causing tears to well in her eyes and roll down her cheeks. The patient, Gabriella Forgione, wasn’t complaining. The 25-year-old pharmacy worker was happy to be prodded and poked at the hospital in Nice, in southern France, to advance her increasingly pressing quest to recover her sense of smell. Along with her sense of taste, it suddenly vanished when she fell ill with COVID-19 in November, and neither has returned. (Leicester, 2/23)
NPR: COVID-19 Long-Haulers Struggle To Get Condition Recognized As A Disability
Disability advocates and lawmakers are calling on the Social Security Administration (SSA) to study the issue, update their policies and offer guidance for applicants. "If we end up with a million people with ongoing symptoms that are debilitating, that is a tremendous burden for each of those individuals, but also for our health care system and our society," says Dr. Steven Martin, a physician and professor of family medicine and community health at UMass Medical School. "We know what's coming. So, we have to make sure that we're on top of this," says U.S. Rep John Larson, a Democrat from Connecticut, who joined with another member of Congress to write a letter asking the SSA to work with scientists to understand what support long-haulers might need. (Emanuel, 2/22)
Boston Globe: Lonely, Isolated COVID-19 Patients Get Lifeline: Doctor Creates Pilot Program For Vaccinated Hospital Workers To Sit With Them
As Dr. Ben Moor wandered the halls of the South Shore hospital where he works over the past year, the closed doors separating COVID-19 patients from the world outside weighed heavily on his mind. “Behind every door, a person with COVID-19. Alone,” Moor wrote in a recent op-ed for STAT. “They see their nurse periodically. A food service worker comes in three times a day with a tray of food. Other than that, no human contact.” But these days, Moor — an anesthesiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth — is breaking through these barriers. After receiving his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine last month, he saw an opening, a way to bring comfort to people in quarantine and be a liaison to their anxious families, waiting desperately to be by their side. (Annear, 2/22)
In lung transplant news —
Becker's Hospital Review: Utah Nurse Who Had Severe COVID-19 Receives Double Lung Transplant
A Utah intensive care unit nurse was released from Gainesville, Fla.-based UF Health Shands Hospital after a severe COVID-19 infection left her needing a double lung transplant, CBS4 Miami reported Feb. 22. Jill Hansen Holker, RN, contracted a COVID-19 infection in November. The infection eventually became severe, leaving Ms. Holker unable to breathe on her own. She was transferred from her hospital's ICU in Utah to UF Health Shands Hospital and placed on the list for a double lung transplant, which she received about a month ago, according to CBS4. (Carbajal, 2/22)
