Canaries in a Coal Mine

The experiences of COVID long haulers may hold the key to explaining other post-viral illnesses...and vice versa

- RYAN PRIOR

Rounding on three years into the coronavirus pandemic, scientists project there are over 100 million COVID long haulers worldwide. A recent Brookings Institution study estimated that around 16 million working-age Americans currently have Long COVID, costing $168 billion a year in lost earnings, not to mention the missed personal and professional opportunities and the high toll it takes on families. And countless more will suffer from it before the pandemic is in our collective rearview mirror. Post-viral illnesses, like chronic fatigue syndrome among others, are not new, but in the wake of Long COVID, how they are analyzed and treated is groundbreaking. The patient-led medicine that has come to the fore to seek answers will have long-lasting ripple effects on the medical establishment and on how post-viral illnesses are diagnosed and treated. It is to this topic that former CNN reporter Ryan Prior turns in his new book. Prior, a long-time chronic fatigue syndrome patient, who also suffered from Long COVID, focuses on long haulers and the patient-centered groups that sprung up around it in THE LONG HAUL: SOLVING THE PUZZLE OF THE PANDEMIC'S LONG HAULERS AND HOW THEY ARE CHANGING HEALTHCARE FOREVER (Post Hill Press). In this excerpt, Prior shares how as he was covering the pandemic as a journalist, it became increasingly clear that the tragedies of COVID complications would likely be one of the greatest scientific opportunities of the modern era, helping us understand myriad post-viral illnesses which would, in turn, help millions of people for years to come.