Millions of long-Covid patients continue to struggle with cognitive difficulties.
Five years after the pandemic’s start, millions of Americans are still struggling with long-lasting symptoms of Covid-19. Cognitive difficulties are among the most troubling and common symptoms in people both old and young.
These ailments can be severe enough to leave former professionals like Ken Todd unable to work and even diagnosed with a form of mild cognitive impairment.
I first spoke with Todd, a 56-year-old former Showtime executive in New York City, in 2022 for a column on long-Covid patients grappling with crippling fatigue.
Todd says he stopped working in 2023. When he tried to apply for jobs he realized he just didn’t have the physical or mental stamina. “It just exacerbated my symptoms,” he says.
Todd was diagnosed with a form of mild cognitive impairment in February. Now, he is pursuing cognitive rehabilitation to learn strategies to compensate for his cognitive deficiencies, along with other therapies. “We have not talked about regression,” says Todd. “But we need to keep monitoring it.”
Our exchange raises a troubling question: Are long-Covid patients’ cognitive symptoms getting better or regressing? And are those patients being diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, more at risk for developing dementia or Alzheimer’s disease later?