How many still struggle with long COVID 3 years after WHO declared virus a pandemic

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Saturday marks three years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

As the virus swept through communities around the globe, hospital beds filled up, businesses shut down and people went into isolation.

Now, with the protection provided by vaccines, many of us have returned to our normal lives.

However, COVID was not the first global health scare -- and it likely will not be the last.

Marta Cerda runs a home healthcare business. Whether it's interacting with employees or work behind the computer, her brain needs to be sharp, but for the past two-and-a-half years, Certa has relied on a notebook to help her remember things.

"My memory freezes, I stutter," Cerda said. "The brain is deeply impacted."

Besides her brain, Cerda's lungs are scarred, her heart races and she has lost 30% of her taste and smell. The 60-year-old has suffered from long COVID since contracting the virus in 2020. She also lost her mother to the disease.

"There is no treatment for my memory loss, there is no treatment for my heart or lung issues," Certa said.

On the 3rd anniversary of COVID being declared a pandemic, Cerda and public health officials hope funding for long COVID and the public health infrastructure built for the virus continues.

However, Chicago Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady fears it will not

"In this country, we now have a very bad history of boom or bust funding for public health," Arwady said.

Arwady said to prevent future pandemics and public health crises, it's critical to keep certain things in place that were not available before COVID.

"We didn't have the ability to test for things like variants, we didn't have wastewater surveillance, there are a lot of things we built over the last 3 years," she said.

Arwady said wastewater is a great way to detect any public health threat. She also fears money will dry up neighborhood outreach workers.

"It serves nobody to have a public health system that cannot maintain some of the real gains of preparedness and security that we have made at every level," Arwady said.

Looking back, Arwady said when it comes to mandates and shutdowns, she wouldn't change a thing. She said she believes the best decisions were made for public health based on the information at the time.