1 in 12 Utahns suffers from long COVID, health department study says
Oct 2, 2024, 9:00 PM
Blake Bockholt talks about the challenges of living with long COVID at the Cannon Health Building in Salt Lake City on Wednesday. A new report highlights new findings showing how common long COVID is in the state. (Laura Seitz, Deseret News)
(Laura Seitz, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — Blake Bockholt says he used to be very active. He was a high school English teacher who would go running, cycling and canyoneering.
Bockholt suffers from long COVID.
“My life is completely different than I thought it would ever be,” he said Wednesday at an event announcing a new long COVID study.
It took Bockholt a few years to figure out where his boundaries were. He said he should have stopped teaching two years earlier than he did. He kept teaching, reducing the number of classes he taught to what most teachers taught, and then fewer than most teachers.
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As he pushed himself each day, it would take a large toll on his body — something called post exertion malaise — and he could not recover. That led him to lash out at his family, and eventually his principal stopped by his house and told him he needed to go on disability and stop working.
“I knew the limits were a long time ago. It was coming to terms with that,” he said.
The Utah Department of Health and Human Services released a report on Wednesday saying long COVID is significantly impacting many Utahns. The report is designed to provide information to medical providers, patients and others to help all Utahns have similar opportunities for living healthy lives.
Read the full story from KSL.com here.
