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When COVID-19 first emerged as a global health threat, great attention was given to the acute phase of the disease.<\/strong> The immediate, short-term effects were devastating for many, and led to wave after wave of increased hospital pressures.<\/p>\n But with each successive wave, more and more of those who became ill started to realize that their symptoms were lasting much longer compared to others who had fully recovered. Brain fog, dizziness, headaches, fatigue, and loss of smell \u2013 for some patients, these symptoms lingered well after they were no longer infectious.<\/p>\n As patients shared their experiences with physicians and support groups, the term \u201cLong Covid\u201d became the unofficial name of this emerging syndrome. Researchers now speculate that Long Covid could lead to further complications that include respiratory, neurocognitive, and cardiovascular disorders, among others. Various studies estimate the prevalence of Long Covid to be anywhere from 10 to 50 percent of those infected with COVID-19.<\/p>\n While research on the treatment of acute COVID-19 is still ongoing, others are turning their attention to Long Covid and the complications it brings.<\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content” full_height=”yes” parallax=”true” parallax_image=”1305″][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”750″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css_animation=”slideInRight” css=”.vc_custom_1663623455538{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”]<\/p>\n Dr. Manali Mukherjee is an affiliate scientist at The Research Institute of St. Joe’s Hamilton<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n Dr. Manali Mukherjee was among those who fell ill with COVID-19 in early 2021. Like so many others, Dr. Mukherjee\u2019s symptoms persisted well beyond the acute phase of the disease. For a while, her sense of smell was gone, but then she often started to smell smoke. She also experienced changes in blood pressure, fatigue, and brain fog \u2013 an inability to concentrate or think clearly for long periods.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were good weeks, and then bad weeks,\u201d says Dr. Mukherjee. \u201cI just kept thinking, \u2018I\u2019m a trained immunologist, I know what might be happening to me, and I\u2019m getting this anxious. What\u2019s happening to other people who don\u2019t know about it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Schooled in cell biology, immunology, and pharmacology, Dr. Mukherjee came to St. Joe\u2019s Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health as a post-doctoral fellow working with Dr. Parameswaran Nair in 2014. Dr. Nair is a world-renowned clinician-scientist whose lab studies airway immunity and eosinophilic asthma using novel imaging methods, sputum cytology, and other innovative techniques.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″]