3/15/2025: Half a decade of Long COVID

On March 11, 2020, the U.S. government declared COVID-19 a national public health emergency. Five years later, millions of people have developed Long COVID — both before the emergency was declared, like co-host Miles Griffis, and many more after.

In this episode of Still Here: Griffis reflects on five years of having Long COVID and discusses the impact people with Long COVID have had on painting a fuller picture of the deleterious, harmful impacts of SARS-CoV-2.

Also in this episode: A BMC Medicine study examining long-term molecular changes in people who developed Long COVID in the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic, potential retinal biomarkers for Long COVID, and the latest COVID-19 trends. 

The transcript for this podcast is⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ available on The Sick Times’ website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. You can jump to specific sections of the podcast and transcript below:

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:01:47) COVID-19 trends

(00:09:58) Half a decade of Long COVID

(00:21:45) Research: Molecular changes in people with Long COVID; a potential retinal biomarker for Long COVID

(00:24:49) Outro

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Mentioned in this episode (in order of appearance):

• The Sick Times: Event announcement: Commemorating Long COVID Awareness Day
• The Sick Times: National COVID-19 trends, March 11
• CDC wastewater dashboard
• Biobot wastewater risk reports
• WastewaterSCAN dashboard
• CNN: Federal government no longer accepting orders for free COVID-19 tests
• The Sick Times: Half a decade of Long COVID
• The Sick Times: Research updates, March 11
• The Sick Times: Finding an accepted Long COVID biomarker will be complicated. This blood test could give us answers.

Additional audio in this episode: 

• Rude Mechanical Orchestra: Which Side Are You On? (orig. Florence Reece) 
• Pixabay: Thunder and the beginning of rainfall