This week the podcast, my first since returning from vacation, turns to a topic that has largely fallen off the mainstream media’s radar screen: The Covid pandemic and its enduring aftermath – Long Covid.
Slightly over two years ago, the CDC and the World Health Organization declared the Covid emergency over. At that point, more 1.1 million Americans had died from the disease. That was 17% of the global death toll despite the U.S. having just 4% of the world’s population. Since then, an additional 100,000 people have died from Covid infections.
Fortunately, deaths from the disease have fallen considerably (see chart), thanks largely to the effectiveness of the vaccines with 80% of the population having taken at least one dose. Yet uptake of the annual booster shots are way down as the Trump-appointed leaders of the Food and Drug Administration cater to the whims of anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr, secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. They have stopped recommending the vaccine for healthy adults, saying only seniors and those with chronic conditions that put them at risk should get the shots. Less than 25% of eligible adults have been inoculated against the latest variants – leaving the majority of the population vulnerable.
Vaccination is no guarantee you won’t get the disease. Its major benefit is reducing the severity of Covid once you get it. I can speak to that personally. I contracted a relatively mild case of Covid in 2022 after receiving both my initial Covid shots. Thankfully, I have not had any enduring Long Covid aftereffects.
But millions of others are not so fortunate. What is Long Covid? Long Covid is not a low-level recurrence of the disease. Rather, it is a constellation of about 200 symptoms that affect anywhere from 5% to 20% of people who’ve mostly gotten over it.
The most common symptoms include chronic fatigue, brain fog, a permanent loss of smell and taste, poor circulation, and severe tingling in the extremities. Most get over these symptoms within three to six months. But for many, it can turn into a debilitating chronic condition, leading to an inability to work, enjoy life or, in some cases, even permanent disability.
I’m pleased to have on the podcast this week an eminent scientist and entrepreneur, a physicist by training, who is deeply concerned about the impact Long Covid is having on not just the growing number of individuals suffering from the disease, but on our health care system and the broader economy. Dr. Phillip Alvelda earlier in his career served as a program manager for the Defense Department’s Advanced Research Project Agency.
Best known for inventions like the Global Positioning System and the Internet, DARPA also had a Biological Technologies Office, where Dr. Alvelda was involved in funding the development of the mRNA technology that led to the Covid vaccine. He also helped kickstart the brain-machine interface industry. More recently, he founded Medio Labs, a COVID diagnostic testing company. He is currently working with an ad-hoc group of 160 scientists called the Global Biosecurity Working Group to push for greater pandemic preparedness here and abroad.
If you are concerned about the the nation’s lack of pandemic preparedness, and are worried about the long-term effects of contracting the disease, I think you will find our conversation enlightening. Give a listen.
