CNN’s Richard Quest, who tested positive for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in April and has recovered, is puzzled why the symptoms are back.
In an article he wrote on July 7 on cnn.com, Quest said he realized he’s living and suffering from what he called the “long tail” of a “tornado” that is COVID-19:
“When it lands, it swirls through the body, causing chaos, confusion, coughs, wreaking damage to each organ it touches. Some won’t survive its visit. For those that do, when it has gone, one surveys the damage to the human landscape and realizes it’s much greater than first thought. My symptoms were on the milder side: I never had breathing difficulties, or loss of sense or smell. I was wiped-out tired and I always had ‘the cough,’ which has now returned.”
He described in detail the other “areas of damage” he has discovered:
“I have now become incredibly clumsy. I was never the most lissome person, no one ever called me graceful, but my clumsiness is off the chart. If I reach for a glass, or take something out of a cupboard, I will knock it, or drop it on the floor. I have tripped over the curb and gone flying. I fall over furniture. It is as if that part of my brain, which subconsciously adjusts hand and movement to obstacles it sees, isn’t working.
“At times there’s a sense of mild confusion. The micro delay in a thought, the hesitation with a word. Nobody would notice but me.
“My digestive system is peculiar, to say the least.
“It doesn’t matter whether I call them symptoms, traits or wreckage—my body doesn’t feel quite right.”
Though his doctors reassured him that the malaise will eventually wear off, they can’t tell when.
Quest concluded with a warning: “For those who have not had COVID-19 or witnessed the mess it leaves behind, again, I urge you, do whatever you can to avoid this tornado.”