If the percentage of people with COVID-19 who go on to have long-term symptoms 'similar to what has been seen for other pathogens, then we're looking at a mass disabling event.'
When Jaime Seltzer first heard about a new virus that was spreading globally early in 2020, she was on full alert. As an advocate for the post-viral condition known as/chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME/CFS, she worried about a new wave of people having long-term disabilities.
Sure enough, later in 2020, reports began emerging about people with extreme fatigue, post-exertion crashes, brain fog, unrefreshing sleep, and dizziness when standing up months after a bout with the then-new viral illness.
"This for all the world looks like ME/CFS. We think they are frighteningly similar, if not identical," says David M. Systrom, MD, a pulmonary and critical care medicine specialist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who studies people with both diagnoses.