This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies. Tomorrow, the federal COVID-19 public health emergency,

declared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, comes to an end. But millions of

Americans who contracted the disease continue to suffer from symptoms, many of them debilitating,

a condition known as long COVID. Our guest today, James Jackson, is a recognized expert on the

cognitive and mental health impacts of long COVID, which he says are quite common. He writes in a new

book about people who are happy standouts in their jobs, who after getting COVID are chronically

affected by fatigue, cognitive impairment and depression, or more serious symptoms, such as

delusions and hallucinations. Jackson's book offers practical advice to patients suffering from

long COVID, with suggestions on finding professional help, and information on treatments and strategies

for dealing with their symptoms. Jackson's knowledge is informed by his work with hundreds of

long COVID patients, his previous work with patients suffering from post-intensive care syndrome,

and to some extent by his own struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

James Jackson is a licensed psychologist, specializing in neuro-psychology and rehabilitation,

and a research professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University. He's also director of long-term

outcomes at the Critical Illness Brain Disfunction and Survivorship Center at Vanderbilt. He's the

author of more than 150 scientific papers. His new book is titled Clearing the Fog from

Surviving to Thriving with Long COVID, A Practical Guide. James Jackson, welcome to Fresh Air.

It's really my pleasure to be with you Dave, thank you.

So let's talk about long COVID. First of all, how common is it? Do we know how many people suffer

from it, either in the United States or worldwide? There's a range of estimates that people report.

In the book I talk about the number 200 million, that's a huge number of people, and that's an

estimate that is widely quoted. I think there's some debate among experts about whether it's more

...