Long COVID creates longtime battle among minorities

Well, kind of hard to believe with this. It's been almost three years since the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown started in Ohio. And while we're getting back to normal, COVID is still impacting lives across the country and right here at home. A lot of live studies show that 20 to 30 percent or more people who contract COVID-19 will have health problems for weeks, even months after their body has been cleared of the virus. So, Tanisha Gradel looked into this for us. She's here in the studio this morning and Tanisha still more questions and answers even among doctors. A lot of questions and part of that I learned is that testing is somewhat under the radar now compared to the start of the pandemic.

I mean, you think about it, we don't have to go to the doctor or the health department to get tested because of at-home tests. So, that also means unless someone reports their results to the health department or their doctor, those results are not being recorded. Now, that's making it hard to get a true count of COVID patients and doctors are guesstimating long COVID's overall impact. But I'm told the numbers doctors at university hospitals, they continue to see a staggering. Many people thought that it's in people's head and it's not real, but it is a real entity. And we've evaluated probably 600 patients in the UH COVID recovery clinic since it began a little bit over a year ago. Now, the other part of this is looking at who is most impacted by long COVID.

The CDC recently released an updated survey. It shows 31% of Hispanic adults that they have or have had long COVID. Compare that to nearly 29% of black adults and 27% of white adults reporting the same thing. Now, there is concern minorities aren't getting the help they need to deal with long COVID. We've done stories about how minorities were hit with higher rates and infection and were more likely to be hospitalized or die. And now some may be struggling to get a doctor to believe their systems or symptoms are long COVID. Now, if they see a provider, that's because other patients simply cannot afford or they don't have that access to resources they need to get that help.

It's not like a strep throat where you can take a test and say, this is what the person has. It's also almost like a diagnosis of exclusion. So you have to have a keen clinician who's well versed in understanding differential diagnosis to try and figure it all out. Now, I asked Dr. Rosenberg, what's the solution here? University hospitals, they say, does have a clinic specifically set up for long COVID recovery. And it's located nearby, but plans to expand right into the communities that need the care the most. I'm told is in the works in the meantime, research is ongoing.

And, you know, that's most important right now. But one of the other things I want to hit on too is doctors reassuring people who, you know, they may not be believed, right? Their symptoms are real, what they're experiencing is real. And you have their hope, hopefully get that resources and help you need. I think that's been the difficult thing about COVID is like, oh, I just got some body aches. It's just because I'm tired, you have to sleep. But what are the symptoms that people should be looking for to diagnose long COVID? Yeah, well, you have fatigue, you have some of that coughing, you have some nausea, diarrhea, all of those. And that's the problem too.

A lot of those symptoms kind of, you know, are similar to the cold and, you know, just kind of, oh, you're like, playing it off. So you need that help. You need a physician, a doctor, someone you trust to really say, hey, no, this is real. This is long COVID. All right. Thank you, Tanisha. Thanks, Tanisha.

Long COVID