Omicron Can Lead to Long COVID

Public health officials have defined so-called long COVID as the physical, neurological, and cognitive symptoms that can persist indefinitely after infection.

Over the past two years, we’ve all seen the countless news stories about the devastating effects of long COVID upon those who are unfortunate enough to suffer from it.

Although the Omicron variant is causing less severe disease in those who are fully-vaccinated, the number of those infected who suffer from the loss of taste and smell, physical fatigue, and brain fog still is quite significant.

During this period of a surge in COVID because of Omicron’s high transmissibility, it only makes sense for all of us to continue to take the usual precautions — wearing a protective face mask (such as an N-95), maintaining social distancing, and avoiding large crowds — until the Omicron surge begins to wane.

Sure, we can play Russian roulette with our health.

But with the number of Omicron cases already declining (though still high) in Massachusetts, we figure that if we’ve made this far through the worst of the pandemic, sticking it out for another two months or so by making careful choices only makes sense.