Welcome to Paging Dr. Gupta.

This is the podcast where your health questions become the conversation.

They drive the conversation.

And you've been sending in some great questions.

So today we're diving into some interesting topics that you've sent our way.

And one of our producers, Kira, who by the way is from the Midwest, like me, she has

the first question ready.

Kira?

Hey, Sanjay.

So since last week marked five years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a

global pandemic, we've actually had a lot of listeners asking questions about COVID. So this

one's coming from Candy in Oregon. And she wants to know what are the stats for people who have had

breathing problems long after having COVID-19? All right, Kira, thanks for bringing that one in. And it's a

timely question for the reason you pointed out. It's been five years since we first

declared COVID a pandemic. Okay, Candy, what you're describing is long COVID. You may remember in the

beginning it was referred to as long haulers, but it is long COVID and it is an entirely new

disease class driven by a novel virus, the COVID virus.

The strict definition long COVID are symptoms that persist at least three months after infection.

For some people they say at least six months, but candy, as you know, as I think you're

alluding to, the symptoms can last years as well, and they can

range from mild to severe. Some of these symptoms, like fatigue and brain fog and dizziness and sleep

problems, we've heard a lot about those things, taste and smell issues as well. That can be something

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