ATLANTA - It's been more than two years since 34-year-old Elana Cooper first contracted COVID-19 at her grandfather's funeral in March 2020.She says she caught the virus again in January.
A PhD student in biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech, Cooper says she is really struggling with brain fog, one reason she came to AbsoluteCare in Buckhead, one of five long COVID clinics in Georgia.Cooper is concerned her difficulty focusing and memory lapses may make it difficult to continue in her program."It kicks in at any point," Cooper says. "So, when you're in the middle of a conversation, and you have to, like, think for a word and pause, it's a little embarrassing.
You're trying to find words, you're trying to think through problems, but you're moving slower, you're processing slower. And, that's hard to do in a PhD environment."Dr.
Joel Rosenstock, a veteran infectious disease physician in Atlanta, has worked with more than 150 patients with long-haul COVID at AbsoluteCare, and he says brain fog is one of the top challenges their patients face.Symptoms can include memory difficulty concentrating, foggy thinking, confusion and headaches."So memory problems, automated things they have trouble with," Dr.