‘It’s Not in My Head’: They Survived the Coronavirus, but They Never Got Well - The New York Times

The first few months, I didn’t believe myself. Is this in my head? When I got the antibody test a few weeks ago saying I had a positive antibody test, I sobbed for like an hour. I was like, it is written on paper that this is what happened to me. Before then, you’re sitting there constantly questioning your own body, and no one in the medical community believes you.
There has been no public health campaign about this. I have relatives that believe if you have hot water and lemon, this will cure Covid. I have relatives that believe that I am sick because I work too much.

COVID-19 downplayers often cite the deaths from the virus as the only people who actually suffered. Everyone else had the sniffles, right? Yes, many do, but very many have it much worse.

Per the CDC in July, it’s not some sliver of the population either:

In a multistate telephone survey of symptomatic adults who had a positive outpatient test result for SARS-CoV-2 infection, 35% had not returned to their usual state of health when interviewed 2–3 weeks after testing. Among persons aged 18–34 years with no chronic medical conditions, one in five had not returned to their usual state of health.

The effects will be more or less severe for different folks, but let’s not pretend like the “mere 200,000” deaths are all that matter and the 7 million other cases are nothing to worry about.