Dr. Jeff Hersh urges vaccination as COVID-19 remains a threat


Dr. Jeff Hersh

Q:  Is the whole COVID-19 crisis finally done?

A:  No! It’s true that things are definitely better now than they were at the height of the pandemic. But this improvement should not let us forget how devastating COVID-19 has been and that it continues to cause issues for many people:

  • Since the pandemic began in the U.S., there have been about 100 million known cases of COVID-19 (and of course there were many cases where no testing was done and so they may not have been categorized, so the total number is likely much higher than this) and about 1.1 million deaths from it. 
  • At the height of the pandemic, on Jan 20, 2022, there were 153,000 people hospitalized due to COVID-19, and although things are much better now, on Nov. 30 there were still about 30,000 Americans hospitalized with COVID-19.
  • On Feb. 4, deaths from COVID-19 peaked at about 4,000. Thankfully, this has gone way down, but on Nov 30, more than 450 Americans still died of the illness.
Dr. Jeff Hersh

Another concerning aspect of COVID-19 is the risk of developing “long COVID,” a condition in which prolonged, persistent symptoms last beyond the initial days to up to four weeks from the acute infection. Symptoms of long COVID may include fatigue, body aches/pains, mood swings, difficulty concentrating (often described as “foggy” thinking), certain psychological symptoms (for example anxiety, depression, PTSD, others), shortness of breath/cough and/or other breathing issues, loss of taste and/or smell, and many other possible symptoms. The specific long COVID symptoms someone may develop, and how long they last, vary quite a bit from patient to patient.



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