Stress, depression, and anxiety have been shown to increase susceptibility to viral syndromes. Now we can add loneliness and isolation to that list.

This study surveyed the participants who had not been diagnosed with COVID at an initial time and at one year. Of those people who reported having contracted COVID within that year, the researchers found that individuals who had reported increased stress, isolation, loneliness, anxiety, or depression had a greater likelihood of having COVID symptoms after the infection lasting at least one month.

During COVID our collective personalities changed in unique ways. The changes differed from the first year of COVID (2020) to years two and three (2021-2022). And the changes were very different from those that had been observed after local or regional natural disasters. Personality changes are different from changes in mood. During the pandemic, depression, anxiety, and stress resilience definitely changed – the first two increased, the last one decreased.

The Social Safety Theory describes how our social environment influences our thoughts and feelings which then triggers physiologic processes through our sympathetic nervous system, our stress response, our vagal nerve responses, and our ability to conceive of our world. Social Safety is protective.

We’d love to be able to predict just who will get long COVID. We can’t yet say for sure who would get Long COVID but we are developing the capacity to understand it a bit better. This study is an elegant study of genomics and immune activation. If you are into detailed studies of genomes then you’ll love this study.

Moving forward, we can expect COVID to affect us in waves as it continues to mutate. A significant question is how long COVID may lve within us, even if we aren’t able to infect others. This idea of long -term COVID infections could be related to the presence of Long COVID in some.

A remarkable 70%+ of individuals who have had COVID can complain of at least one symptom persisting for greater than 6 months. THAT’S AMAZING!! And that portends very poorly for future health of the population.