Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic, long COVID lingers on

It is the five-year anniversary of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 400 million people worldwide are dealing with some form of long COVID. From vaccines to long-term effects, we will look at the progress that has been made as well as the challenges and the future under the current administration.

Will Humble, Executive Director of the Arizona Public Health Association, joined us to discuss.

Now, in the United States, COVID-19 comes in waves throughout states. For example, Arizona saw a COVID-19 wave in December and January.

“It’s a virus that will be with humanity for as long as we’re around, I think but it will continue I think, to mutate and become more and more contagious, less and less lethal,” Humble said.

In the past, a large concern from COVID-19 was the harmful infection called “long COVID-19,” which is life-changing to people with the infection however it does not last a lifetime. Not as many people are worried about long COVID-19 now because it was seen in people that got the virus when it first spread throughout the country, according to Humble.

“I think in the long run, in terms of my experience in public health over the last 30, 40 years, it’s been the single biggest event to undermine trust in institutions and science. Not just trust in science, not just trust in the scientific method but really trust in institutions is what has eroded,” Humble said.

He also commented that civil liberties were challenged in the time of restrictions and many people were resentful of the orders. For example, parents of children resented the education system for having children miss out on 1-2 years of learning.

If this were to repeat, Humble said the United States could possibly be ready to take it again however it depends on the extremity of the virus.