(NOVEMBER 16, 2022) Professor of Medicine David Kaminsky, M.D., was interviewed by WCAX-TV for a story about a Vermont family’s search for answers following the death of 27-year-old Charles Vallee, who suffered from so-called Long Covid. (Click on headline for more.)
David Kaminsky, M.D.
(NOVEMBER 16, 2022) Professor of Medicine David Kaminsky, M.D., was interviewed for a story broadcast on WCAX-TV about a Vermont family’s search for answers following the death of 27-year-old Charles Vallee, who suffered from so-called Long Covid.
Kaminsky helped start the UVM Health Network COVID-19 Recovery Program, which provides highly individualized, expert medical care across the UVM Health Network based on the most current research and understanding of Long COVID and also offers a free, confidential online support group for all patients, family members, caregivers, community members, and providers who have experienced long-lasting COVID-19 symptoms.
“Most common symptoms are extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, and … brain fog; then there are at least 50 or 60 other symptoms,” Kaminsky said. After he got COVID in January of 2022, Charles Vallee, who was an intelligence officer scheduled to deploy to Iraq in March, was tormented by lingering and debilitating brain fog, headaches, tremors, and inability to sleep that made basic household tasks and everyday errands confusingly and insurmountably difficult. Forced to take a medical leave from the military and frustrated by the lack of any measurable improvement to his condition after weeks of regular and frequent consultations with his primary doctor, psychiatrists, and his family support system, Vallee died by suicide in May. His family has created the Charles M. Vallee Foundation to spread awareness of Long Covid’s impact on the brain and mental health by supplying grants for Long Covid research.