Thousands of New Yorkers — including ‘Orange is the New Black' actor Matt McGorry — suffer from ‘Long COVID'
'My actual daily survival is based on understanding and navigating [it],' said McGorry, a 39-year-old Manhattan native, who was part of a recent online city Department of Health series about the issue.
A COVID and flu vaccination campaign conducted by the Health Department over the past year referred 21,805 residents to receive long-COVID-specific services during medical check-ups and outreach programs.
Advertisement
3 'Orange is the New Block' actor Matt McGorry suffers from 'long COVID.'
NYCHealth
The department also is conducting an ongoing study of residents who have had COVID-19.
Preliminary results from the study so far indicate that more than one in four of the adults has experienced long-term symptoms, meeting the definition for long COVID.
Advertisement
More than 80% of those with long COVID reported limitations in daily functioning, and more than 25% said they experienced employment changes because of related medical issues.
An estimated 500,000 residents had lingering COVID-impacted illnesses that interfered with daily life in 2023, the department said.
'Together, these studies suggest that New Yorkers continue to experience the long-term effects of COVID-19, impacting not only health, but also work and daily life,' a Health Department spokesman said in a statement.
'Given the wide range and persistence of symptoms, the Health Department is continuing to analyze these data to better understand the burden of Long COVID and inform responsive public health strategies.'
Advertisement
3 According to New York City Department of Health data, there are tens of thousands of New Yorkers are living with long COVID.
BASILICOSTUDIO STOCK – stock.adobe.com
Symptoms of long COVID include coughing or feeling short of breath, trouble thinking clearly or concentrating or having 'brain fog,' dizziness or a fast heart rate, sleep issues, anxiety or depression, fatigue, stomach problems, muscle pains or losing the ability to taste or smell.
Long COVID also impacts blood vessels, raising the risk of heart ailments.
Acting Health Department Commissioner Dr. Michelle Morse said long COVID is a serious problem that warrants monitoring of patients, the way the medical community has tracked the medical conditions of residents exposed to toxic fumes and debris from 9/11.
Advertisement
3 'Brain fog' and having trouble concentrating is one of the symptoms of long COVID.
Antonioguillem – stock.adobe.com
She discussed the department's efforts during two video interviews with McGorry.
'Our data here in New York City suggests there are about one in three New Yorkers who say they had symptoms that had lasted more than a month after their COVID infection,' Morse said.
Not all those cases meet the definition of long COVID, Morse said.
McGorry, 39, said long COVID severely impacted his career, which has included roles in the hit Netflix series 'Orange is the New Black' and the TV series 'How to Get Away With Murder.'
'Fatigue was and still is the main issue,' he said.
Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here!
He said he sometimes feels 'light-headed', has trouble sleeping and has blood vessel damage and micro-clots.
Advertisement
The actor said he decided to go public as part of a public-awareness and social-justice campaign to help others less well off than he is navigate lingering medical woes from the coronavirus.
'Essentially I have been locked out of my industry, and that has had big financial impacts,' McGorry told Morse.
'No one should have to choose between a paycheck and their life and safety. … I really want to raise as much awareness as possible.'
Advertisement
Over the past year, the department has sought to bolster COVID and flu vaccination rates in underserved neighborhoods through its Building Resiliency and Vaccine Equity program.
The program reached 319,507 residents and referred 42,773 New Yorkers for COVID vaccination.
Medical and social-service coordinators also referred 80,975 people to COVID-related services, and specifically 21,805 participants to long-COVID-specific services and 257,802 to other health and social services.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Parents don't need to try harder – to ease parenting stress, forget self-reliance and look for ways to share the care
I wrap up my workday and head for home, making a quick stop to grab the supplies my sixth grader needs for a project due this week and some ingredients for a quick dinner. Once home, I check the sixth grader's school website and discover a missing assignment. Bringing this up sparks a minor meltdown. I summon the emotional energy to help her calm down and problem-solve. My husband arrives home with our high schooler, who's discouraged by something that happened at soccer practice. We'll have to process that later. Around the dinner table, we realize that both kids have sports practices Thursday, on opposite ends of town, at the same time as a mandatory parent meeting at school. And now I'm ready for my own meltdown. On this particular evening, my family wasn't navigating anything unique or especially catastrophic. Scenes like this play out nightly in homes across the United States. In fact, my family's circumstances offer the protections of multiple forms of privilege. Certainly others have more difficult circumstances. Why is it still so hard? For a long time, I felt ashamed for being overwhelmed by parenthood. How do others seem to have it all together? Of course, the highlight reel of social media only fueled this comparison game. I often felt that I was falling short, missing some hack that others had found for not feeling constantly exhausted. The reality is I'm far from alone in experiencing what social scientists term parenting stress. Defined as the negative psychological reaction to a mismatch between the demands of parenting and the resources available, parenting stress has become increasingly prevalent over the past five decades. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly half of all parents in the U.S. said their stress was completely overwhelming on most days. Stress like this has an impact: Parents who experience high levels of parenting stress have decreased mental health and feel less close with their children. I began researching parental stress and well-being when, several years after becoming a parent, I left my job as a social worker and entered a Ph.D. program. Through this process, I learned something that changed my perspective entirely: Parents today experience such high levels of stress because people have never traditionally raised children in isolation. And yet, we are more isolated than ever. It clicked: Parents don't need to do more or try harder. We need connection. We don't need more social media posts on the 'top three ways to keep your family organized.' We need a paradigm shift. The myth of family self-reliance Throughout human history, people primarily lived in multigenerational, multifamily arrangements. Out of necessity, our hunter-gatherer ancestors relied upon their clan-mates to help meet the needs of their families, including child-rearing. Research over time and across cultures suggests that parents are psychologically primed to raise children in community – not in isolated nuclear family units. Anthropologists use the term alloparents – derived from the Greek 'allo,' meaning 'other' – to describe nonparent adults who provide care alongside that provided by parents. Research suggests that alloparenting contributes to child well-being and even child survival in populations with high rates of child mortality. A 2021 study of a present-day foraging population in the Philippines found that alloparents provided an astounding three-quarters of the care for infants and an even greater proportion of the care for children ages 2 to 6. In contrast, the ideal of the nuclear family is incredibly recent. It developed with industrialization, peaking in the 1950s and 1960s. Despite the significant changes in family structure – such as an increase in single-parent households – since that period, the paragon of the self-reliant nuclear family persists. And yet, support from others is a key factor in family resilience. The familiar adage 'It takes a village to raise a child' is, in fact, bolstered by social support research among parents in general, as well as those of children with special needs. Parenting with collective care Social support, while often viewed as a singular phenomenon, is actually a constellation of actions, each with its own unique function. Social scientists specify at least three types of support: Tangible: Material or financial resources or assistance Emotional: Expressions of care, empathy and love Informational: Provision of information, advice or guidance Different parenting challenges call for different types of support. When my husband and I realized we had three commitments in a single evening, we didn't need advice on managing our family's calendar; we needed someone to take our kid to practice – that's tangible support. When my tween was blowing up over homework, I didn't need someone to bring us dinner; I needed to remember what I learned from a book on parenting adolescent girls – that's informational support. To move away from the myth of family self-reliance and back toward an ideal of collective care would take a paradigm shift, requiring intervention at every level, from federal to state to family. A 2024 Surgeon General's Advisory on parenting stress called it an urgent public health issue and provided recommendations for government leaders, service systems and communities. Systemic strategies like providing access to high-quality mental health care, expanding programs like Head Start that support parents and caregivers, and investing in social infrastructure like public libraries and parks could all help reduce parenting stress in the U.S. Personal steps toward a paradigm shift Parenting stress is not a problem that can be solved solely by the individuals experiencing it. But here are five ways you can start making the shift toward collective care in your own life: Take stock of your network. Assess not only in terms of the number of supporters, but what types of support they offer. Do you have plenty of people to talk to, but no one who would bring you a meal or give your kid a ride? Identify gaps and consider ways to round out your 'village.' Start small. Introduce yourself to your retired neighbor. Sit next to another parent at your kid's sporting event. Talk to the babysitter you regularly see at the playground. Supportive relationships don't just happen; they are grown. Offer help to others. While it seems counterintuitive, people who give support to others experience greater well-being and even longevity compared with those who don't. Helping others also creates the opportunity for reciprocity. Those you support may be more likely to return the favor in the future. Normalize asking for help and taking it when offered. For many people, asking for support is hard. It requires dropping the facade and letting people in on your struggles. However, people are often more willing to help than you might assume. Further, allowing others to help you gives them permission to voice their own needs in the future. Consider your caregiving expectations. The way others care for your children may not mirror your way entirely. Consider what are nonnegotiable practices for your family – such as limits on screen time – and what is worth loosening up on – like veggies at every meal – if it means you have more alloparents helping you out. None of these suggestions are easy. They take time, vulnerability and courage. In our society of rugged individualism and nuclear family self-reliance, parenting through a lens of collective care is downright countercultural. But perhaps it's closer to how we, as humans, have raised children throughout the millennia. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Elizabeth Sharda, Hope College Read more: Babies don't come with instruction manuals, so here are 5 tips for picking a parenting book Gentle parenting can be really hard on parents, new research suggests Parents in the US had alarmingly high rates of anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic – and that has a direct effect on kids Elizabeth Sharda has received research funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Faculty Development Fund. She serves on the board of directors for Michigan Fosters, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing support to families involved in the child welfare system. Solve the daily Crossword
Hamilton Spectator
2 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Canada's largest teaching hospital is being built in Mississauga — and planners are giving the public a sneak peek
Tucked between a furniture retailer and a home decor store in a sleepy Mississauga strip mall is what Trillium Health Partners says is the future of Ontario's health care. Or what that future will look like after 2034, once Trillium's new Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital is complete. Dubbing it the Experience Centre, Trillium Health Partners has set up several mocked-up clinical spaces in an empty storefront — including an operating room, a birthing room and a room for general patients — to offer community members a sneak peek of the future hospital. THP is the administrative body that oversees the Credit Valley Hospital, Mississauga Hospital and Queensway Health Centre in Mississauga. The new hospital, which is being built as a replacement for the Mississauga Hospital on the Queensway about five kilometres west of the Experience Centre, will become Canada's largest teaching hospital once finished, the province says. Along with the Shah Family Hospital for Women and Children, the new 22-storey building will be three times the size of the current hospital, and include 950 patient rooms and nearly 650 surgical rooms, along with expanded emergency, ICU and mental health departments. Aside from signs about the development project displayed in the hallway and laminated stickers of outlets and other details taped to the walls, the Experience Centre felt like a functional health-care facility when the Star went on a tour Monday. Bedding and blankets covered the patient beds, gloves and other PPE lined shelves near the entrance to the rooms, and computers and other equipment sat on clinical workspaces. 'People can see it and experience it,' said THP president and CEO Karli Farrow, 'so we can see it's going to have many years of usage.' The display rooms also felt larger than what you would expect in a hospital — and Farrow and members of THP's planning team leading the tour said this was intentional. 'This was very much informed from our experience during the COVID-19 years,' said Dr. Ivan Cacic, an anesthesiologist and THP's chief medical director. Karli Farrow, president and CEO of Trillium Health Partners, looks over a model of the Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital. Along with bigger rooms, planners have also designed over 100 rooms specifically for containing airborne illnesses. As Cacic explained, these rooms are self-sufficient — meaning everything a doctor or nurse may need while caring for a potentially infectious patient can be accessed without opening the door to the rest of the hospital — and have a room for clinical staff to safely don and doff PPE equipment. In the future emergency department, rooms for containing airborne illnesses will also have a separate entrance from the general ambulance entrance to ensure others waiting for emergency care aren't infected, Cacic added. Beyond the designated rooms, the 22nd floor can be shut off from the rest of the hospital. 'If we ever have SARS (or COVID) again,' said manager of clinical planning Manju Sherma, 'we have space that we know can be easily converted right away as soon as we need.' Throughout the tour, planners stressed the Experience Centre is important for THP's engagement process. Since opening in May, there have been six open houses for people to visit and walk through the mock spaces, along with virtual tours. They hope visitors leave the open houses feeling excited about the future hospital, which is currently under construction right next to the existing Mississauga Hospital. While the current hospital is still operating, it will be torn down once the new building is finished. Along with open houses for the public, THP has invited members of its clinical team to run simulations in the mock-up rooms, then gathered feedback on their design. Whether it's been raising the height of a sink in a patient bathroom to make it more accessible or redoing the layout of the general patient room to give nurses more space to care for a patient in bed, Cathy Walker, a former nurse and now manager for clinical planning at THP, said the feedback from the clinical team has been very helpful. 'Obviously we want to build a room that we don't have to rebuild after we built it just because it doesn't meet the needs of our teams,' she said. Manager of clinical planning Manju Sherma walks through an example of one of the 26 planned operating rooms. This focus on the future, Farrow said, informed other design considerations like ensuring operating rooms can be used for any surgery. Peel region, with Brampton in particular, has long struggled with hospital capacity. While Farrow and other planners believe the future Gilgan hospital in Mississauga will provide much needed in-person care, they noted that the future building will still be 300 beds short of demand by the time it opens in a decade. Still, Farrow described the future build as a 'forever hospital.' 'It's going to be here for generations.' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Cosmopolitan
2 hours ago
- Cosmopolitan
Covid has made our brains age faster, says a new study – even if you were never ill with the virus
A new study from the University of Nottingham suggests the Covid pandemic may have left a very real impact on our brains, even if we were never sick with the virus. After analysing the data of over 15,000 adults via the UK Biobank – a biomedical treasure trove of health data and samples from half a million participants – scientists, with the help of artificial intelligence, compared brain ages found in two distinct two groups. One group had multiple brain scans taken before the pandemic over a set period of time, the second looked at those with scans taken both before and during the pandemic. Via this method, researchers found on average the human brain aged five and a half months faster during the pandemic than it did pre-2020. "This study reminds us that brain health is shaped not only by illness, but by our everyday environment," explains Dorothee Auer, Professor of Neuroimaging and senior author on the study. "The pandemic put a strain on people's lives, especially those already facing disadvantage. We can't yet test whether the changes we saw will reverse, but it's certainly possible, and that's an encouraging thought." The University study reports that "the changes were most noticeable in older individuals, in men, and in people from more disadvantaged backgrounds". It's a staunch reminder of just how big an impact stress and worry can have on our minds and bodies. "What surprised me most was that even people who hadn't had COVID showed significant increases in brain aging rates," added neurologist Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad, who also worked on the study. "It really shows how much the experience of the pandemic itself, everything from isolation to uncertainty, may have affected our brain health." Jennifer Savin is Cosmopolitan UK's multiple award-winning Features Editor, who was crowned Digital Journalist of the Year for her work tackling the issues most important to young women. She regularly covers breaking news, cultural trends, health, the royals and more, using her esteemed connections to access the best experts along the way. She's grilled everyone from high-profile politicians to A-list celebrities, and has sensitively interviewed hundreds of people about their real life stories. In addition to this, Jennifer is widely known for her own undercover investigations and campaign work, which includes successfully petitioning the government for change around topics like abortion rights and image-based sexual abuse. Jennifer is also a published author, documentary consultant (helping to create BBC's Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next?) and a patron for Y.E.S. (a youth services charity). Alongside Cosmopolitan, Jennifer has written for The Times, Women's Health, ELLE and numerous other publications, appeared on podcasts, and spoken on (and hosted) panels for the Women of the World Festival, the University of Manchester and more. In her spare time, Jennifer is a big fan of lipstick, leopard print and over-ordering at dinner. Follow Jennifer on Instagram, X or LinkedIn.
