Sleep disturbances, depression and anxiety attacks. Long Covid, especially after Omicron, has devastating effects. And the cases increase.
The pandemic has not yet been completely eradicated. And even if life seems to have resumed normalcy interrupted at the beginning of 2020, the waste from Covid and its variants still weighs on our lives.
There is a serious problem linked to the recovery, especially from an economic point of view. But there is also a world behind the apparent sanitary quiet. A decidedly gloomy picture, made up of depressive states and connected aftermaths and possibly contracted infection (and then healed) than uncertainty about the future. Basically, it’s not a good time.
Not to mention the echoes of the war in Ukraine, too close to ignore. A compendium of issues capable of creating a literally explosive mix. The problem is that such “explosions” all too often happen without anyone hearing them. In the effort of being able to share them and in the difficulty of coping with them. And even to be understood.
The technical term given to the coronavirus waste is Long Covid. That is, a sort of compromised state of health that, despite the recovery, continues to be affected by the infection. For experts, something equally dangerous and not only from a purely health point of view. In Italy the virus continues to circulate, between variants and sub-variants, in an epidemiological framework that is, after all, manageable.
Hospitalizations are decreasing but the positivity rate remains at 14.6%. There are fewer masks (although not too much) and, certainly, a sort of boomerang effect linked to the two years spent with the face mostly covered. But, according to experts, there would also be something else to watch out for. Something silent, invisible for a number of months.
Covid, Omicron leaves dangerous waste: the opinion of the experts
According to a recent study conducted in the United States by Washington University in Saint Louis, Long Covid should not be underestimated. Especially if the virus had been contracted in its Omicron variant. The analysis was carried out on the data of the Veteran Affairs Corporate Data Warehouseaccording to which at least 60% of patients can develop post-infection disorders, which can even be seen after a year.
These are mostly mental disorders, such as increasing anxiety, depression, difficulty in sleeping at night. Definitely serious problems, also given the frequency with which they would occur. The researchers carried out their survey on almost 154,000 medical records of patients who tested positive between March 2020 and January 2021.
Two other control groups involved healthy subjects. The results showed a surprising response, especially for those who survived the acute phase of Covid, especially Omicron. They are the ones who are most likely to develop mental disorders, even if they never had any before the infection. The 60% in question would be translated into 64 cases in over 1,000 people belonging to the control group. Furthermore, among those who have been infected, there are 24 cases with sleep disturbances and 10 others with depression. Moreover, even more alarming, even those who have contracted the infection with only mild symptoms are likely to develop similar ailments. What is certain is that, after a pandemic that has radically changed our society, a convergence of intentions and objectives would have been the minimum. Dealing with a war on the doorstep was not expected. Nor is it lawful.