Searching for Data on Black Patients and Long Covid
By Jeff Green
Pictured: About 1,100 people have been scanned so far in Detroit.
Long Covid and the medically forgotten
I was intrigued when I was offered a chance to chat with Bishoy Rizkalla, Moderna’s vice president of long Covid. This was partly due to his unusual title, but also because two of my family members have a history with chronic illnesses that are considered very similar to long Covid. If long Covid gets more attention, maybe people with less common, but similar, autoimmune-type illnesses will benefit.
An estimated 17.8 million people in the US are living with long Covid, which can cause fatigue, respiratory issues, so-called brain fog and other debilitating issues, Rizkalla says. Of those, about 20% have the most severe form that can take them out of the workforce altogether, he says, which may be costing the economy about $200 billion in lost wages a year.
We already know that at the beginning of the pandemic there was a significant disparity between death rates for Black people compared with White people – our reporting showed a death rate three times higher for Black communities. The consensus on whether long Covid will also disproportionately affect people of color is somewhat mixed, because it’s understudied. The best way to get a better sense is to directly involve minority communities, Rizkalla says.
So Moderna teamed up with Team Wellness Center, a health-care provider for under-served people in the Detroit area, and People.Health, a health-care tech company, to gather and organize patient data. Phillip Levy, People.Health’s chief medical officer and a researcher at Wayne State University in Detroit, is overseeing the survey thanks to his expertise in mobile delivery of medical care. The study is using a purpose-built mobile CT scanner to look at the lungs of about 4,000 adults this year who have had Covid and feel like the symptoms have persisted.
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Posted by Larry Cole
So proud of you, Tauana!!! I can’t think of anyone more deserving of this opportunity than you. Can’t wait to hear about your success stories :) Cheers!