Not sure if this qualifies for long covid or not but:
My FIL is probably going to die from the long term effects of Covid. Got it in August of 2021. Was very very sick for a month and has basically never recovered. He was a little overweight and had asthma but in June of 2021 we went camping and did some light hiking at like 10k feet altitude and he was fine. Now he can basically not walk, can’t work, has chronic heart arrhythmia that they have tried to shock back to normal a few times without success and is on oxygen 24/7. I doubt he makes it much longer it seems like he spends a few days a month in the hospital every month. He is only 64.
Of course he was vehemently anti-vax. I even offered to pay him and my MIL $1000 each to get the first shot of their choosing and they wouldn’t. Even now they remain unvaxed.
That sucks, for a multitude of reasons. This is why I am paranoid about getting Covid. A. Lifetime of bad asthma, overweight and I am worried I might get hit and never really recover.
Borderline overweight, age, respiratory history. No one clear extra factor. Took a little whining but got it.
Worked great for me. Temp dropped within 24 hours and largely cleared up. Taste was bad but did not linger for me. No or a very mild rebound which I thought of as my body doing mop up duty. Had extra fatigue for 3-4 weeks. Like a full blown 2+ sleep during the day instead of a catnap.
Taste was extreme for my wife. She had stomach stuff. She bailed after day 3 and did fine.
Definitely felt like it helped me get rid of the worst of the symptoms quicker. Taste was a little annoying but sucking on hard candy helped with that. No side effects for me.
Wife woke up with cold symptoms, tested positive and tried to get Paxlovid through e-mails/chats with her hematologist, GP, and Cigna’s telehealth chat through their app. None would get back to her timely or in Cigna’s case just refused to prescribe even though she clearly qualifies (severely immunocompromised).
So she went to UCLA walk-in clinic in Santa Monica where they gave her the prescription. She started taking it that first afternoon.
The initial course of symptoms never got worse than a moderate cold (congestion, coughing, headaches). That lasted for a couple of days and then started to get better. But after the Paxlovid ran out, she had a bad rebound. Same symptoms returned and were just as strong as the first few days. Lasted 2-3 weeks before fading away. Her GP and hematologist both said they think the Paxlovid guidance should be changed to allow for longer courses because they see rebound so often.
Assuming you are talking a cruise, yah I think you have to assume you’ll get covid and chalk it up to luck if you don’t. Hope you all recover quickly with minimal bad times.
