Larner College of Medicine News & Media

Kaminsky Discusses ‘Long COVID’ in The Other Paper Article

November 3, 2022 by Lucy Gardner Carson

(NOVEMBER 3, 2022) David Kaminsky, M.D., professor of medicine, spoke to The Other Paper’s Corey McDonald about so-called long COVID, following the death in May of a childhood friend of his own son who, after four months of increasingly debilitating symptoms that forced him to obtain a medical leave from his job, took his own life.

David Kaminsky, M.D.

(NOVEMBER 3, 2022) Pulmonary and critical care physician David Kaminsky, M.D., professor of medicine, spoke to The Other Paper’s Corey McDonald about so-called long-haul COVID, following the death of 27-year-old Charlie Vallee. After suffering four months of increasingly debilitating symptoms that forced him to obtain a medical leave from his job with the Defense Intelligence Agency, Vallee took his own life in May 2022. “Not understanding what long Covid did to our son is almost as bad as the shock of death,” Vallee’s father said at his son’s memorial. “There are definitely people out there who have been sick over two years now, which is just unbelievable to think about,” Kaminsky said. “I mean, this is what devastates people -- they turn into these chronically exhausted people who can’t get out of their house. They miss their friends, they can’t work.” Kaminsky, along with Assistant Professor of Medicine Katherine Menson, D.O., and UVMMC physical therapist Suzanne Lawrence, P.T., started a Covid recovery group that meets over Zoom once a month to share stories and support.

Read full story at The Other Paper