Eliana Uku wasn’t too worried when she got sick from COVID-19 in March 2020. She was 26 and healthy, she exercised most days, and at first her symptoms were mild. Even with a low fever, cough, fatigue, and mild headache, she kept working in her job as a corporate strategist in New York City. Three weeks after her first symptoms appeared she felt well enough to resume running.

But her cough persisted, and after a month or so, new symptoms appeared, such as memory lapses and sensitivity to sound. Everything was painfully loud, including the sound of her boyfriend washing dishes, leading the couple to switch to paper plates. She would forget words, and her mind would go blank at work