Covid should not slip from our radar

You might have noticed the C word has slipped off the news agenda somewhat. We’re talking about other important things – the Budget, the cost of living, the war in Ukraine.

It does sneak in there sometimes, especially if it messes with the plans of high-profile Kiwis – but we don’t wait breathlessly for the 1pm update despite almost 10,000 new infections every day. Lots of us have had it. Lots are over talking about it.

I was chatting to a friend who’s recently been ill with Covid and, weeks on, is still experiencing symptoms.

She’s feeling much better thankfully, but not entirely. She mentioned ongoing joint pain – specifically elbow pain.

My ears pricked up at that. I have not had Covid – but I have elbow pain; I’ve never had that before. I also have hand and knee pain that wasn’t there a couple of months ago.

I had dismissed these little niggles (I’m very fortunate, they’re not that debilitating) as the legacy of the way I live now. I have a much more active lifestyle than I used to and, funnily enough, I have the pandemic to thank for that. I’m one of those ‘‘Covid refugees’’ who fled the city for a life on the land in the middle of last year. Horses, dogs and general farmy-ness fills all the bits of the day not devoted to work. Rain, wind or shine I’m out, schlepping hay bales, moving fences, changing rain covers, mixing buckets of feed. I just assumed the sore joints were a result of that near-constant activity.

Unhelpfully in my case, it might be any number of other things, not Covid at all. It could be menopause. It could be arthritis. More than a decade ago I started experiencing chronic pain in both feet, which did indeed turn out to be rheumatoid arthritis. I waited until my feet were properly stuffed and then had surgery on both, stumping around in double moon boots for a couple of weeks, and resigning myself to a life without stiletto heels. Perhaps my issues are the creep of rheumatoid arthritis into other joints?

Surely, if I’d had Covid, I’d know?

Maybe, just maybe, I have had it?

Not necessarily. While New Zealand passed the landmark of a million recorded cases last week, modelling has shown the real number of postinfectious Kiwis could be two to four times greater than that.

This has massive implications for all of us. A recent World Health Organisation estimate tells us 10 to 20% of people will experience mid and longterm symptoms after a Covid infection. That means, even if we take the current 1 million cases as gospel, up to 200,000 Kiwis could be affected by long Covid. It’s a secondary epidemic with more than 200 possible symptoms, and we don’t know nearly enough about it yet.

I’ve certainly had plenty of opportunities to get Covid. Like many in the past few months, as restrictions were gradually dropped, I’ve come blinking out of my mole hole into the daylight, gradually rejoining a former life of (very occasional) dinners, parties and other gatherings. After every single one of those, I’ve been messaged to advise at least one of the group has tested positive.

Not me. I am doublevaxxed and boosted, and I wear a mask most places, but I’m starting to feel like some kind of immunological unicorn. I’ve taken regular RATs and never had a positive.

But maybe, just maybe, I have had it? Maybe I’m still experiencing its effects?

Theoretically, I could find out, but it’s not a simple process. According to microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles, the commonly used antibody tests can’t tell the results of vaccination from infection. Perhaps more helpfully, we may be close to being able to pop into a pharmacy to find out what our personal immunity level is.

That might help those who are planning travel, for example, or concerned about their risk and deciding whether to make lifestyle changes to protect themselves. (If you’re worried, or you know you’re particularly susceptible to severe symptoms, your GP may agree to write you a prescription for a second booster shot, but you’ll have to pay.)

None of that helps with the potential explosion in long Covid cases. In conversation with Stuff health reporter Hannah Martin last week, leading long Covid researcher Dr Anna Brooks said there was ‘‘huge demand’’ for research into cellular biomarker testing, and that GPs need a pathway if they suspect long Covid symptoms in their patients.

‘‘We’ve got a giant mess ahead of us,’’ she told Martin.

Given we’re being warned of a second Omicron wave as early as next month – just as flu season is likely to strike an immune-naive population – maybe we ought not be letting Covid slip off our radar. The message is, if you haven’t already had it, you really, really don’t want it.