<em>The Atlantic Daily</em>: Understanding Long COVID

“Many researchers I spoke with believe that the race to understand long COVID will advance our understanding of chronic conditions that follow infection, transforming medicine in the process,” Meghan explains.

Read the full piece.

What to read if … you’re still processing that interview:

“Meghan embodies all the negative stereotypes Britons have about our distant cousins across the Atlantic: too loud, too brash, too much,” our staff writer Helen Lewis argues from London. “It will be beautifully ironic if this American can, by speaking out, change the tone of royal coverage in Britain.”

One question, answered: If my parents are vaccinated, can my kids go maskless with them?

The CDC today released guidelines that suggested a vaccinated household could spend time indoors, without masks, with one other unvaccinated household. Our assistant editor Lora Strum explains what risks to consider:

Say your children are carrying an asymptomatic infection, not wearing a mask, and interacting with their vaccinated grandparents. People who are vaccinated and exposed to the coronavirus are unlikely to experience severe symptoms, require hospitalization, or die from COVID-19, experts told me. So the risk to your parents is lower than it has been.

Now let’s reverse that: This time, your parents are carrying an asymptomatic infection and interacting with your children, who are not wearing masks. It’s possible that your children could contract the virus. The coronavirus vaccines are very good at protecting against severe disease, but they do not eliminate the risk of catching or carrying the virus.

The risk that your parents would transmit the virus is lower than it would have been pre-vaccination, although we don’t know how much lower. Emerging data suggest that “even if a vaccinated person is asymptomatically infected with the coronavirus, they are less likely to transmit it to someone else than someone who is unvaccinated with asymptomatic infection,” Joshua Barocas, an infectious-diseases physician at Boston Medical Center, tells me. (That also means that your vaccinated parents are less likely to become super-spreaders if they catch an asymptomatic infection from your kids.) Wearing a mask, however, would further reduce the risk of transmission.  

Children under 18 are less likely to suffer severe infection, experts say, but they can still spread the disease. If they caught SARS-CoV-2 from your parents, your children could potentially carry an asymptomatic infection to anyone in their bubble—you, their friends, or other caregivers. So if you do decide to accept the risk of going mask-free, make sure your kids still mask up afterward, to protect others.

For the latest on life after vaccination, read Rachel Gutman’s story on how to navigate America’s awkward, semi-vaccinated months.  

Tonight’s Atlantic-approved isolation activity:

Volunteer. “Many organizations offer creative ways to serve the community while staying safe,” our associate art director Katie Martin points out.

Today’s break from the news:

Here’s how female frogs tune out useless, noisy males.