As Americans ditch Covid measures, pandemic worsens for the vulnerable

In the last few months, Dr Jeannina Smith has seen organ transplant recipients who have been very careful throughout the pandemic venture out for one activity, contract Covid-19 and lose their transplant.

About 7 million people in the United States are immunocompromised, according to the American Medical Association. That includes people who are organ or stem cell transplant recipients, or who have cancer, certain genetic disorders or take an immunosuppressive medication.

And when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stopped enforcing a mask mandate for public transportation in April, it made traveling harder for people who are immunocompromised, Smith said. Several of her patients contracted Covid while traveling.

Older adults also continue to face a greater risk from Covid. Of the more than 146,000 people who have died this year from Covid, 77% were over the age of 65.

But wearing a mask can also be taxing on people who are required to do so in their jobs, said Erica Birkley, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience in the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

The key is ensuring that people can take mask breaks, she said.

It can also be helpful to think about how wearing a mask could benefit others, she said.

People with long Covid also often must contend with a lack of recognition of their disease, said Dr Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, who chairs the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and founded its Post-Covid Recovery Clinic.

Almost one in five US adults who had Covid continued to have long Covid symptoms in June, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

Symptoms include severe fatigue; shortness of breath; heart palpitations; brain fog; and sleep problems.

But she has been out of work since February 2021 and feels exhausted after walking a couple of aisles at the grocery store, she said.

Ramey also lost her job.

She applied for disability benefits, but the Social Security Administration recently denied her. She plans to appeal. She does not expect that she will be able to return to work as a cardiology nurse.

Still, Gutierrez is encouraged by some of the recent research on long Covid. For example, a study from a Yale University researcher, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that cortisol levels were often lower among long Covid patients as compared to control groups.

Smith, the transplant infectious disease specialist, also said she was hopeful that nasal vaccines under development could help reduce the risk of infection rather than just preventing severe outcomes, which would be helpful for her patients who are more vulnerable to the virus.