Lyth Hishmeha, a 26-year old living in Camberley, England, was always looking for something to do. While he was working as a software engineer, he also did research on AI and made plans to start his own company. He was trying to manage four to five books at once. He says that I couldn't sit still.WIRED UK Original story.All of that was stopped when he was sent home by his employer with a suspected case Covid-19. The symptoms were familiar, but mild: shortness of breath, fever, cough. They subsided within two weeks and Hishmeh was able to go grocery shopping. His heart started racing at the shop. He felt dizzy and short of breath. He thought it was a heart attack and he hopped on the bus to go home. The same feeling returned, but this time it was worse. After getting off the bus, he flagged down a car from the police and fell to the ground. He was taken to the hospital for an ultrasound which revealed that he had Covid-19 pneumonia. He was declared fine by the consultant and was released.Hishmeh was not fine. He developed many debilitating symptoms over the next few months. These included brain fog, severe fatigue, and heart palpitations. It was difficult to even go to the toilet. Hishmeh was homebound for several months until October 2020. Hishmeh couldn't watch a movie through in the last days of his long Covid. He visited the emergency room more times than 10 times. He would cry and plead for help.Hishmeh is able to leave his home 16 months after he was infected. However, he is still not fully recovered. Hishmeh has not been able to go back to work and has developed food allergies. Postural tachycardia Syndrome is a condition where the heart beats faster when he stands. He says he is not fully recovered. It was so terrible that I'm now a big improvement. To a normal person, however, I would be at the end of the earth.Hishmeh is just one of millions of people who have Covid for a long time. While scientists try to unravel the mystery condition, they are stuck in a life-limiting limbo. As long as Covid patients like Hishmeh struggle with their illness and the health authorities continue to struggle with basic questions about Covid, they will be able to help them.We need to know how many people are in similar situations as Hishmeh's to get an idea of the extent of Covid's problems. It is not easy to find that number. The media mentions a variety of numbers, depending on the study cited. What is the true figure?Some estimates were more conservative than others. One study was part of the Covid-Symptom Study, which used the app ZOE Covid by researchers at Kings College London. It surveyed 4 million people from March 25, 2020 to June 30, 2020. Results showed that only 4.5 percent of Covid-19 patients reported symptoms within 8 weeks and only 2.3% after 12 weeks. This is a very low number. The study was criticized by both long-term Covid patients and researchers. This estimate could be low for a few reasons. The study missed out on long-term Covid sufferers who couldn't log their symptoms on the app regularly. It also considered a patient as recovered if they had less than five symptoms the day before.
