Dr. Fernando Holguin, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Anschutz Medical Campus, said the studies reflect what he’s seen. “There were no hospitalizations related to these events and people recover in one to two days,” Holguin said. He said the symptoms pale in comparison to those who get hit hard with COVID-19.
There are potential economic benefits for businesses that allow employees to call out sick, according to Glen Mays, a professor of public health policy at the Colorado School of Public Health. “We know from strong evidence that taking sick days significantly reduces the likelihood of transmission in the work settings,” Mays said.
The good news according to neuroscientist Diego Restrepo who runs a smell lab at The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is that, for most people, the loss of these senses is temporary. Bonanno said his wife lost hers for just a few days. “Most people will recover their sense of taste and smell within a few months,” Restrepo said.
“It is very disappointing that this is not something that we’re tracking,” said Glen Mays, chair of the Department of Health Systems, Management & Policy at the Colorado School of Public Health. “It’s a high-priority area. First-responder safety and protection is a critical element of the emergency preparedness plans that are put in place at every level of government.”
Given the stark differences between each arm of the study, "I think it is difficult to compare the mild disease portion of the study to the severe disease cohort," said Dr. Maria Nagel, a professor of neurology and ophthalmology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study. In other words, brain changes seen in mild infection may not be driven by the same mechanisms as those seen in tissue from people who died of COVID-19, she told Live Science in an email.
So while the “preponderance of data” points to children being less likely to infect people when compared with adults, “they certainly do,” said O’Leary, who is also a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “So, if you’ve got vulnerable people in the household and your 7-year-old comes home with COVID, it’s not to say they can’t give it to anybody else. They absolutely can. It’s just a bit less likely.”
There is not any data on the prevalence of vaccine guilt, but Dr. Matthew Wynia, director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at University of Colorado’s Anschutz campus, surmises that many people who have already received the COVID-19 vaccine probably feel like their doses could have gone to someone more deserving. “I think it’s a really common phenomenon,” he says. Wynia would know: He too experienced guilt when he got vaccinated in December, an opportunity afforded by chance.
“The question of whether it’s the right time — well, that’s how much risk we want to take,” said Jon Samet, dean at The Colorado School of Public Health and a state advisor on pandemic modeling. “With the pandemic going down in the state, and vaccinations going up, it’s not the wrong time. I’ll put it that way.”
