Understanding COVID-19

Understanding COVID-19

By: Dr. Jerrold Kaplan, Medical Director, Outpatient & Workers’ Compensation Services, Gaylord Specialty Healthcare

Over the last two years, studying COVID-19 has become a top priority for doctors and scientists across the country and around the world. A lot has changed since the first time someone uttered the words “COVID-19” and/or “pandemic”. And we’ve learned a great deal.

Among other things, we’ve learned that:

1. COVID-19, like all viruses, changes and likes to surprise us at every turn.
    
2. COVID-19 is most commonly spread through respiratory droplets and/or from close personal contact with an infected person.  Many times the infected person doesn’t even realize that they are carrying and spreading COVID-19.
    
3. And, most importantly, each person’s COVID-19 symptoms may be very different. One person may present like a simple "flu," while the other may end up in a hospital such as Gaylord Specialty Healthcare undergoing extensive rehabilitation to combat the long-term effects of COVID-19.

If you’ve ever read one of those COVID-19 screening tools, you will see a laundry list of potential symptoms. Why? Because, thanks to point #1 above, COVID-19 is reported as having multiple body-system effects in patients including:

• Cardiac impairments
• Neuropsychiatric impairments
• Pulmonary impairments
• Musculoskeletal impairments
• Hematological impairments
• Gastrointestinal impairments
• Renal system impairments

Some patients may experience only one of these body-system effects, while others suffer from multiple system effects.

So – what does this mean? Well, plainly speaking, it means that no two cases are ever the same.

Some patients will live with scarring of the heart after their recovery from COVID-19 (cardiac); some will experience moderately impaired immediate verbal memory (neuropsychiatric); some will develop pneumonia (pulmonary); some will experience extreme fatigue lasting for weeks or months (musculoskeletal); some will have a pulmonary embolism (hematological); some will lose their sense of taste/smell and/or have vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea (gastrointestinal); some will suffer from kidney damage (renal system). And – some will have symptoms of "the flu."

What causes one body to react to COVID-19 in one way, and another completely different? We still don’t know for certain. But what we do know is this:

• COVID-19 can attack the whole system or parts of the system and it personalizes its impact, much like other viruses.   This can lead to long-term symptoms.  COVID long-term symptoms are now recognized as a condition known as Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID (PASC).
   
• Structured personalized rehabilitation can help to strengthen these body-system effects and support patients in their recovery from COVID-19. A Multi-Disciplinary Collaborative Consensus Guidance Statement on the Assessment and Treatment of Patients with PASC has recommended that physiatrists (physicians specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation) are often best suited to manage patients with Post-Acute Sequelae of Covid (PASC).
   
• While some may only experience flu-like symptoms, COVID-19 is most certainly not the flu.

Of course, there is still a lot to learn. Getting vaccinated – and staying up to date on your COVID-19 vaccines and boosters – is your best defense against the virus. Here are some other tips to stay healthy while we learn more about combatting COVID-19.