SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Thousands of Utahns who are experiencing symptoms months after being diagnosed with COVID-19 feel they are finally getting recognition.
These ‘long-term performers’ said a recent article posted on the state’s coronavirus website helps them to be heard and also helps connect others to their resources.
“We are real people dealing with this, with families and jobs that some of us have yet to return to,” said Lisa O’Brien, creator of the Utah COVID-19 Long Haulers Facebook group.
It’s almost a year since COBID-19 was diagnosed in O’Brien. But like a handful of others, her symptoms just did not go away.
“Some of us had crazy heartbeats, blood pressure. I lost about half of my hair, probably because of all the stress my body went through,” O’Brien said.
She started the Utah COVID-19 Long Haulers Facebook group, which now has more than 2,000 members, as a platform for people to discuss their symptoms and share resources.
“It’s great to be recognized. It’s great that people know it’s a real risk to have these long – term symptoms.”
COVID long-distance runners celebrate recognition after the state adds their stories and resources to the state’s coronavirus website.
Full story at 10:00 @ KSL5TVpic.twitter.com/59dP41LJpJ– Ashley Moser (@AshleyMoser) 11 February 2021
“Long-term carriers have been left out of the main messages,” she said. “Almost all this time we have the number of cases, the recovery count, the death toll, and now we are counting vaccinations. But you know, we did not count those who did not recover.”
While the state posted about long guards and shared some of the stories on their website, O’Brien felt they were finally getting recognition.
“It’s great to be recognized,” she said. “It’s great that people know that having these long-term symptoms is a real risk.”
She hopes that articles like these will give people in similar situations hope and a place to check.
“Of course we do not have all the answers, yes, we still learn a lot, but we know pieces,” she said.
Ashley Moser