One of the biggest misconceptions about COVID-19 is that the pandemic is over, said Dr. Michelle Harkins, a physician and clinical researcher at the University of New Mexico.
“Well, it’s not over,” Harkins told Source NM in an interview this week. “The pandemic is smoldering. There are still people that are getting sick. You can still get COVID. There’s still a significant burden of Long COVID that we’re going to have to address.”
The most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention national early indicators, updated July 30, show that 3 percent of tests for COVID are coming back positive, and 0.4 percent of patients in emergency rooms have the infection.
Harkins works as co-medical director of the Post-COVID Primary Care TeleECHO program, which is meant to help primary care providers recognize and diagnose Long COVID, a chronic condition defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an illness that follows a SARS-CoV-2 infection and is present for at least three months. Long COVID includes a variety of symptoms, including respiratory, neurological and digestive ones…