Oh, Covid: mysteries remain.

Did it–as seems most likely–come from a Chinese laboratory?

We never have elicited a definitive answer.

We’ll vote “yes,” for lab.

The most serious and, at times, most urgent questions, now concern “Long Covid.”

By medical definition, that’s Covid symptoms and effects that stretch past nine weeks.

At bare minimum, thirty million Americans have suffered from that, say the clinicians, and at least fifteen million still do. Almost certainly the number and effects are higher.

Covid can inflict a long-lasting blow to virtually any organ.

Many are still fatigued from the virus, experience “brain fog,” have memory issues, find themselves short of wind or dizzy, have coronary problems (noticed the explosion of AFib?), can’t shake headaches or nausea, or perhaps have lost taste or smell (or both).

There can also be rashes, sleep problems, fevers, and a host of additional symptoms. In addition to brain fog, COVID-19 can lead to seizure disorders, strokes, and tingling and paralysis of the nerves, as well as several mental health disorders.

Thus far, there are no sure diagnoses and no sure medical treatment.

Long Covid can last for years (many who got the coronavirus in 2020, when it erupted, still have the effects), and tends to be worse for those who have had Covid more than once, gaining momentum with each occurrence of the brutal disease (which barely affected some while it killed many others). Low levels of cortisol often indicate it.

With the heart, the special concern is myocarditis, especially experienced by young men who had the virus. It also has been noted as a side effect of Covid vaccines (1 to 10 cases per 100,000 doses administered), though at a far lower rate than with covid itself (150 cases per 100,000 people infected). Acute myocarditis has been described as a relatively rare cardiovascular complication of COVID-19 infection. However, data regarding the risk of myocarditis during the post-acute phase of COVID-19 are scant.

Bottom line: Covid can throw off the heart and brain, affect nerve impulses, and act like a sleeper agent, lingering for long periods or surfacing long after the infection, whether vaccinated or not. In the most recent reports, medical researchers claim that vaccination boosters reduce long Covid.  This is a controversial claim (in an area where everything is controversial). Trust in scientists and medical experts has eroded since the pandemic. We’ll leave that to your own discernment.

Clearly, the disease itself remains a big issue, and its multitude of effects, unpredictable pathways, and varied durations make it seem all the more likely to be synthetic, originating from a lab leak in Wuhan or North Carolina, where, incredibly, Chinese biologists were trained—the U.S.!—to modify the coronavirus into more virulent and ubiquitous forms.

[resources: The God of Healing and Future Events]