Written by Tanya Terry
The Flint Community Webinar on Coronavirus once again enlightened the community on truths concerning COVID-19, the COVID vaccine and the world we are living in, in general.
During the webinar, Dr. Susan J. Woolford, MD, MPH, presented a “medical moment.”
Woolford noted because of one of the studies that came out, we’re learning how new variants of Omicron have similarities to Delta.
“So, this is important because if you remember, Delta was more likely to cause severe disease than was Omicron,” she added. “But, Omicron spread even faster than Delta. But, now the new variants of Omicron, which can still spread amazingly quickly, have some of the features of Delta. So, there’s a possibility that we’ll have more severe symptoms with the newer variants of Omicron.”
In addition, Woolford stated it’s possible that immunity from a previous infection won’t really help us. She added people are getting repeated episodes and may not be protected as well. Because of this, Woolford stressed the importance of continuous COVID testing.
“You need to actually test as much as you’ve ever tested before, and, of course, get your vaccine so that you can protect yourself against it,” she said.
Woolford gave community members reasons they would want to still avoid COVID, while acknowledging people are getting weary of doing all the mitigation things. She pointed to new studies showing the widespread effect of long COVID and how it is affecting so many organs in our body.
COVID gets into our cells and organs by using the ace receptor we have on many organs. All these organs are at risk for having long COVID symptoms if we end up getting infected. These organs include, but are not limited to the lungs, heart, kidneys and brain.
According to the Mayo Clinic, in some people, lasting effects of COVID may include long-term breathing problems, heart complications, chronic kidney impairment, stroke and Guillain-Barre Syndrome-a condition that causes temporary paralysis.
“Even if you had a mild case of COVID or an asymptomatic case, you could still end up with long COVID.”
One study that came out in May focused on the fact the number of people who are having heart problems as a result of long COVID is significant.
Woolford compared letting COVID get into our heart to letting prongs poke holes in our heart and damage it.
She said the summer of 2022 is not the time to be distant from people who are part of our support systems in the midst of the anniversary of George Floyd’s death and multiple mass shootings. Still, she said we need to seek strong support systems in a way that doesn’t cause more tragedy on top of already disastrous episodes.
The weekly webinar is sponsored by the Healthy Flint Research Coordinating Center, University of Michigan Prevention Research Center and the Flint Center for Health Equity Solutions. It can be viewed live on the Healthy Flint Research Coordinating Center’s Facebook page each Friday at noon or at any time afterwards.
