The article above also describes how Covid is reactivating other herpes viruses, which is true: people are also getting shingles after Covid because it’s reactivating their latent chicken pox. If you’re born after 1995 you may already be vaccinated for chicken pox, but you may also need the booster; two shots are the standard now but might not have been available for 90s babies. Check your immunization records and talk to your doctor.
If you have ever gotten chicken pox at any point in your life, there is always a chance you can get shingles later. It is painful and contagious, and I personally know of THREE people who got Covid and then only a month or so later had shingles. Luckily there is a shingles (herpes zoster) vaccine, which is separate from the varicella (chicken pox) vaccine.
This is one of many reasons why those of us who are “covid conscious” stress the importance of prevention: even if you get Covid and it’s “mild”, any infection can still trigger a cascade of more severe health problems down the line, especially if you’ve had Covid more than once. As OP said, EBV can cause mono, and mono can lead to ME/CFS, of which Long Covid shares many symptoms.
Do your part in prevention: wear a mask, stay home when sick, and keep up to date with all of your vaccines. Get your shit today!
we’ve had shingles four times since we got covid – and in the bloody uk you can’t get a shingles vaccination until you’re 65 (we tried to get special dispensation through our neurologist but nobody would play)
and we’ve had ME/CFS since the 80s thanks to mono (and possibly a penicillin reaction) – and other illnesses (and traumatic experiences) will just lower our immune system enough to kick off an ME/CFS spike – we’re in the middle of one rn thanks to a flu vaccination and then an opportunistic virus we caught while we were recovering from that
and yes, covid has made all this shit more frequent, so please try not to get it or give it, y’all know how
amhrancas 