Almost half a year ago, Northam said publicly he had prolonged smell and taste loss following his mild illness. He intended that as a wakeup call for Virginians on the interminable consequences of the coronavirus. Vaccines, which weren’t available when he got sick in September 2020, are the best prevention, he said. But perhaps more surprising was when he recently brought up his symptoms again: Even now, more than a year since his case, he hasn’t regained those senses…

“I’m 62, and I can deal with this,” he said in an interview with The Virginian-Pilot. “But why take a chance, if you’re 15 or 20 years old or whatever age, of having symptoms that may affect you for the rest of your life? Or, in the worst-case scenario, you get COVID pneumonia and don’t recover and end up losing your life.”

Though Northam’s smell and taste impairment isn’t debilitating, he is among the countless Americans with “long COVID” — post-infection symptoms that have lasted a month or more. Many people who have survived the virus now have chronic breathing problems, fatigue, racing hearts and weakened organs. It’s the formidable public health crisis lurking just beyond the pandemic, threatening to keep people from returning to the lives they once knew.