"Mild" doesn't mean minimal symptoms.
Although the super-contagious Omicron strain has driven COVID cases to new highs, researchers say the good news is that Omicron seems to cause only mild illness. The great majority of COVID infections that arise after immunization have also been described to be "mild" (so-called "breakthrough" cases). People who have gotten "mild" COVID have reported that it doesn't seem mild a month after Omicron's global surge and a year after vaccinations became widely available. Read on to learn more.
1. "A Bad Flu" That's "Dragged On."
On Monday, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted, "I've been avoiding this but... covid is the absolute pits." "It's been lucky that it hasn't gotten any worse, but at its worst, it was like a bad flu that dragged on and lingered. I've been vaxed and boosted, yet I still have a breakthrough case. It would be nice if people didn't keep saying it's all mild."
2. "Crappy, Tired, Exhausted."
"Even' mild' disease can be uncomfortable and long-lasting," CNN said on January 7. Michelle Cordes, a Chicago dietitian, said she was vaccinated and boosted, and she took all precautions to avoid COVID. However, she contracted a breakthrough case that knocked her and her family for a loop.
"We all started coughing. We were all suffering from post-nasal drip. My throat was itching, and my spouse and I both had night sweats for about four nights in a row "she stated, "We've been unpleasant and tired. We cut down our tree on Monday, and by one o'clock, we were all exhausted." Cordes claimed she slept in her pajamas for three days, something she'd never done before.
3. "My Eyeballs Started to Ache."
When NPR reporter Will Stone described his own "mild" breakthrough case last summer, it sounded like an Edgar Allan Poe outtake: "Fatigue had enveloped me like a weighted blanket…
Then a headache pressed at the back of my head. Then my eyeballs started to hurt. And it didn't take long for everything to taste like nothing... It had been a terrible five days. My legs and arms ached, my fever rose to 103, and I was sweating through my sheets every few hours of sleep."
4. "Mild" Doesn't Mean Minimal Symptoms
The difference between what we generally consider "mild" illness—say, a scratchy throat or a cold that you managed to get through at work or school—and what the medical world has labeled "mild COVID" is a question of medical semantics. Early in the pandemic, it was crucial to distinguish between COVID cases that required hospitalization and... everything else. It turns out that "everything else" can be pretty harmful.
Dr. Shira Doron, a hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, told CNN that the phrase "mild" isn't meant to minimize your experience. "When we, the CDC, or the National Institutes of Health, say 'mild,' we mean it didn't make you sick enough to go to the hospital. When you get a flu-like disease that keeps you in bed, though, you don't consider it mild."
"At board of health meetings, I've heard conversations of patients who were categorized as 'mild,' yet couldn't get out of bed for three days," Doron told NPR.
People who have a mild illness may develop "Long COVID," which is a set of symptoms that can last months or years after the coronavirus has cleared the body.
5. What to Do
Dr. William Schaffner, professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University and medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, advises that if you get COVID, you should keep in touch with your doctor and let them know exactly what's going on. "If you're using a pulse oximeter, be very specific about your symptoms, including temperature, any difficulties breathing, and your oxygen saturation rate," he suggested.
Medical terms like "mild
COVID" may appear insensitive, but they have a purpose: to warn patients
and doctors about coming emergencies. "These benchmarks are needed to
inform people and their doctors that their symptoms may be developing and that
they should be seen," Schaffner said. "Always notify the doctor if
you—or someone with you—has the feeling that anything is wrong."