Against COVID, prevention's our best weapon, says doctor

Dr. Anne Haire of Tupelo, Mississippi tells One News Now that some patients who have recovered from COVID are experiencing prolonged effects like "brain fog, extreme anxiety, [and] forgetfulness. We are seeing weakened hearts without coronary disease," she continues. "We are seeing lung deficits without asthma or emphysema."

Dr. Haire laments that the ongoing fallout from COVID has been unfortunate.

"You can't explain how one person has absolutely no symptoms, and then you have the complete spectrum to death," she notes. "To say that COVID is a benign, recoverable illness, that's not what we see clinically."

All things considered, Dr. Haire believes prevention is still the best weapon.

"I did get my immunization on this two and a half weeks ago, and I will get my second dose next week," she shares. "It doesn't mean I can't get COVID, but I'm not going to take my mask off and test the theory; I'm going to still try not to have COVID."

In November, Dr. Anthony Fauci recommended that people continue to wear masks and practice social distancing, even if they get the vaccine.

Dr. Amy Givler, a family physician in Monroe, Louisiana, has also told One News Now about the lingering health problems she is seeing in post-COVID patients.

"[There's] continued shortness of breath, muscle aches, headaches, brain fog, feeling fuzzy, not being able to think clearly," she listed. "A lot of people have a long time before their sense of taste and smell return to normal."

Though she believes some of those issues will eventually get back to normal, Dr. Givler also pointed out that "there are people who got this in March who are still having lingering symptoms, and we in the medical profession do not know if it's going to be like that for years. We just do not know," she said.