Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by Takudan

Comfortable in my job

Takudan — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 19:18:28 +0800

I prefer to keep some details to myself but let me know if you need to know more.

I am a software architect in IT MNC for 10 years and counting.
1. This is my first and only job excluding internship.
2. People and culture: good. People are generally helpful and I made some good friends.
3. Salary: let's just say...
- increment is performance based and I'm rated above average yearly
- some friends have told me that I can aim higher with my capability
- I can save at least 40% a year including yearly travels, but that may change in coming years due to personal reasons
4. Management: good and bad. My boss is good and I am well liked by the upper management... But there are some bad apples. The worst one: an old dude waiting to retire, notoriously inefficient and absent in meetings, works like a messenger or delegator of tasks.
5. Career: good and bad. Within department, I'm at the highest I can be as a technical role.
- Any further means I'd need to aim director role and that is impossible due to upper management saturation + I'm less qualified in seniority (experience +age??) as an upper management.
- Overseas prospect: I thought of transferring to other business units overseas to experience different country lifestyle, and I'm very confident that it'll be much easier within my current company than to look externally.
6. Overall package (stress vs flexibility): both have ups and downs. Generally very flexible -- my personal favourite is no MC needed for sick leave. Everyone also respects weekends/holidays.

All things considered, I like my job. Truth be told, I am VERY comfortable in my position, also because I know I 100% won't be retrenched in the foreseeable future for what I offer...

For better or worse, my company isn't giving me a lot of motivation to seek job out there, plus the ongoing retrenchment wave in the IT industry and all...

I just have a nagging question for years now: What am I missing out?

Bumper cars at roundabout

Takudan — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 16:59:57 +0800

[video]https://thumbsnap.com/i/DxKH3JyG.mp4[/video]

Context:
- left lane arrow says straight (exit roundabout) only
- right lane arrow says turn right (stay in roundabout) only
- middle lane arrow says both ok
- that exit is single lane (double line separating the lane from the other junction)

...and there I was just thinking how that black car had that bad dent on its ass, I guess now it can fix both at one go

ETF for mid/small cap or value stocks?

Takudan — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 16:47:00 +0800

Motivation
I'm looking to diversify into value stocks to complement my current portfolio that is increasingly skewed towards US market and the tech giants which are the major market movers of late.

Existing portfolio
LSE:VWRA
LSE:CSPX
A few other company stocks but let's ignore that.

My investment "flavour"
- I am a long term investor (plan to hold for +/-20 years)
- prefer minimal manual investment work to minimise my emotions/biases into every manual action.
- I have IBKR and already have scheduled investment.
- I tried but find myself turned off by stock picking and understanding corporate financials.

Questions
Currently I've bookmarked these after searching on ETF sites:
- LSE:WSML -- iShares MSCI World Small Cap
Irish domiciled
World diversified

LSE:R2US -- SPDR Russell US Small Cap
See below

LSE:R1VL -- iShares Russell 1000 Value
This ETF kinda matches what I want: I don't really like the idea of betting on small companies as they've proven to be less resilient in hard times, so I'm looking for mid cap. Additionally, there's also the distinction between value vs growth... I'm inclined towards the former -- you can think of this as my little gamble, hoping to capture something currently undervalued because everyone's focused on the other side.
My biggest problem with this ETF is that it's still US based. I couldn't find a similar ETF but for world/non-US market.

NYSE:VOE -- Vanguard Mid-Cap Value ETF
As above, but diversify on investment company.

Edit: eh I forgot to ask after writing a wall
So my questions... what do you think about these ETFs?
Any alternative to the above that I found so far?
Opinions about my line of thoughts also welcome... Pls don't roast ya 🙏
Thank you!

Request to unmerge a post

Takudan — Sat, 15 Jun 2024 00:45:39 +0800

-- Please keep your post concise to ensure a speedy review from us. We suggest 250 words or less. --

I started this thread: https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/5455491
But it was merged here instead: https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...#entry109673725

I intended to continue updating and in my own thread to notify my new changes, something like my annual budget tracker thread, but I can't do that on someone else's thread that doesn't focus on the spreadsheet.

Please let me have my own thread for the spreadsheet, thank you.

AMA: Travel planner in Google spreadsheet

Takudan — Mon, 06 May 2024 17:09:27 +0800

Share in /k to gain traction in another sub forum thread... So with that said, AMA here but pls don't troll me too hard.

Serious questions (technical issues, feedback, feature requests...) please feel free to reply in the original thread.

QUOTE(Takudan @ May 5 2024, 03:03 AM)

Hey fellow travellers, presenting to you a new way to plan your trip

Google spreadsheet link
Travel planner

Features
- Direction search algorithm to quickly help to find out route information between two locations at specified time

- Configurable parameters in various aspects to customise your experience per trip.
- Manage your own list of locations all in one place, also compatible with Google My Maps to view in real-world map.
Google My Maps
[YOUTUBE]7fkP_WLnjPc[/YOUTUBE]

Developer's note
This is my second major personal project published since Annual budget tracker. I released this slightly earlier to my own circle of friends and I can see a much bigger interest, I suppose because everybody loves travellin'!
[right][snapback]109673725[/snapback][/right]

New tag "scam" in Finance forum

Takudan — Sat, 04 Nov 2023 10:27:52 +0800

Please add tag "scam", so that users can be warned that something is not "investment", would be nice to give a red colour background instead of default green.

I understand there may be false accusations/lack of info before ppl know whether something is scam or not, so either name the tag "potential scam" OR just have more tags like "scam?" to differentiate un/confirmed ones.

Road belonged to bapak neighbours today

Takudan — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 23:51:13 +0800

Context: my house street is dead end on one side.
So this morning when I was departing to work, one of the neighbours down the street was setting up an awning(?) for a celebration, they parked their lorry in the middle of the street, no car could pass.

They saw me so I stopped and waited without honking la, then I had to wait for them to move a few more things before one unker finally hopped on the lorry and pulled it over to the side, literally less than 5 meters away. The stuff they moved weren't even blocking where the lorry pulled over. And the best part was, they were just walking slowly the whole time, I think I waited 3-5minutes.

Wtheck man, park a few meters away, walk 10 steps more will die? Nevermind, I went along, still made it to work on time...

I came home at night, baru turned into the street, again blocked... A guy was loading stuff on/off between a parked old car and a big ass heavily tinted white Vellfire or Alphard right in the middle of the road, just like the stereotypical asshole driver. Unlike the morning incident, he was much quicker to pull his car over.... ALSO 3 METERS AWAY. Literally just infront of that parked old car man. The guy is also near to the same house that has the awning installed and decorated for a celebration.

What's so hard to park on the side of the road THAT IS AVAILABLE, if you know you're going to take your time?

Please be more considerate in life, thank you.

Inb4 /k asks for racing, no I'm not going to confirm nor deny anything... Sekian rant.

[WTA] budget ~4k for 4k TV

Takudan — Sun, 07 May 2023 01:00:16 +0800

Hi all,

I'm looking for a TV - aiming to buy late this year during 11.11 or 12.12 but earlier also ok if there's any special discount

Budget
2-4k

Requirements/Constraints
- 4k smart TV
- HDMI ports: at least 2
- screen size: ideally 50 inches, range: 40-55 inches.

Usage
- gaming (I have PS4 pro, might want PS5 in the future)
- stream concerts
- Netflix

Preferences
- Can last 5 years or more (like seriously, somehow our TVs kaput less than a year after warranty expire, I want to break this trend)
- Extended/long warranty period (3++ years? Willing to pay to max out warranty)
- Anti-glare would be nice
- don't care about sounds, got existing audio equipment.
- No preference for brand.... but let's say I'm a little skeptical with Samsung and Sharp TVs from past experiences

Please recommend something... I'd be happy to hear your personal experiences too if you're using something that fulfills the requirements and preferences, even if out of budget. Thanks in advance!

Models I'm checking out so far
Note: using 55" as benchmark now as it seems difficult to find 50" with 120Hz
- Hisense U7H - browsed at Harvey Norman. It looks decent, salesman gave me a few comments about other TV models but strongly recommended this for my budget.
- Sony X85k - website advertised anti glare, but I heard that it's not that great.

How do you give Google reviews?

Takudan — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 15:39:21 +0800

How do you rate stuff in Google?

Electric shaver for men

Takudan — Sun, 23 Oct 2022 00:31:35 +0800

Hi guys, I want to buy one for my bf but there's so many choices I'm a little overwhelmed. What I seek:
- Budget 500, can go higher if ticks all my boxes
- smooth shave if possible
- wet/dry use
- convenient to use (cordless, decent battery etc.)
- durable (3+ years would be nice!)

Note: he still uses good ol' manual shaver, and I read that it takes time to get used to and there's difference in the usage/technique... Please share your experiences if any!

Some of these brands came up in my search... Any specific model to recommend?
- Braun
- Philips
- Panasonic
- Xiaomi

Thanks in advance

PSA: check your dependents' Telegram permissions!

Takudan — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 23:17:47 +0800

My mom had Telegram installed to join some friend's groups, and all this while I hardly checked her phone.

Today after reading the other thread, prompted me to check... fuck, she's in like 27478537 random groups, so many random stock investment tips/sharing. Tried scrolling up one chat to see the add history, "Deleted Account added you".

Then I thought, okay maybe my mom simply chose some quick setup when she installed, so I decided to install myself to see how it works. Holy fuck, aside from asking for all sorts of permissions from you, it already sets default permission that allows everyone to do anything to you!

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

Please hide yo dad, hide yo mom, hide yo wives, hide your kids!

Credits to a brave man who shared his foolishness to the public: https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/5308838

WHAT IF: city bus drivers also gets commission?

Takudan — Sun, 24 Jul 2022 14:53:59 +0800

Chat or Q&A to see how well this idea can go! I intend to have serious discussions but I post in /k to allow some light banters, tolong behave ya.

Aren't we all tired of how bad our bus transportation system is?
If you're in power, how would you improve it? (Basically forget about gov incompetency for now... Assume god mode)

Idea
Digital ticketing system:
1. Each person taps in: bus capacity usage +1
2. Each person taps out: bus capacity usage -1
3. Children (those without cards): driver manually ++ on tap in, so the ID that taps out later will deduct the same number accordingly. This should be acknowledged by the passenger for additional costs.
- If capacity reaches max usage, driver should no longer accept extra passengers. Can implement alarm to "shame" the driver so that it's more foolproof.
- Each entry counts towards driver's commission, let's say 5% per passenger. If fare is RM 1, then driver gets 5 cent.

Passengers can scan a QR code provided which will lead them to giving feedback to this particular shift i.e. this bus vehicle, this date, this driver. It can be a template form to input common feedback like punctuality, driver's etiquette (on the road or within the bus), vehicle conditions... With the common template, it then becomes easier to aggregate for further analysis to adjust future data.
If driver gets good feedback then maybe additional fixed bonus, if low then something needs to be reviewed, worst case, tarak commission. Consistent missed deadlines can either be outdated/unrealistic traffic time from point A to B, or the driver's slacking off. Cross check such a "bad day" with others to look for the pattern to determine the cause.

Some Q&A to start:

Q: what about monthly passes?
A: it should generally work with the system i.e.
1. Tap card or scan QR, whatever technology it is, should work like the usual "entry logic"
2. Passengers tapping in still counts towards the drivers' commission for the month, calculated by ratio based on the usage whole month.

Q: what if bus drivers now purposely work OT to earn extra bucks, increasing risk of accident due to tiredness?
A: implement shift system, where drivers clock in and out in the bus. Each driver should have adequate rest between shifts.

Q: what if driver drive dangerously fast to get more passengers over time?
A: there will be cascading changes to that behaviour. By arriving earlier than the estimated time, eventually data analytics will see that this route can be shortened in time. Then your bar is set higher and now drivers need to adhere to the schedule, or get bad feedback.

Q: isn't this unfair to drivers in the rural area, as they have less passengers?
A: it's a problem that I cannot address rn... But I'd argue that rural area has relatively lower cost of living too so... 🤷‍♀️

I did read the link below a bit when the idea came up, so I tried to address some related concerns e.g. to avoid excessive commission chasing:
https://m.malaysiakini.com/news/367508

Dark secrets behind the Bored Apes Yacht Club NFT

Takudan — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 21:51:26 +0800

Original video by Philion:
[YouTube]XpH3O6mnZvw[/YouTube]

Asmongold's reaction video + interview with the creator:
[YouTube]3yzaRv6zySk[/YouTube]
You can treat him like an "expert witness" for the internet cesspool of 4chan, for normies like many of us.

TL;DR: (I recommend you to watch, but if you don't want to....)

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

FFXIV welcome back oldies!

Takudan — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 18:30:40 +0800

Link
As of 12 Jan 2025
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/to...db287d223f4fe93

QUOTE

In the hope that would-be adventurers can experience all that FFXIV has to offer, we are pleased to announce the latest Free Login Campaign!

The latest patch, Crossroads, offers a wealth of new challenges to overcome, such as the FFXI crossover alliance raid, Echoes of Vana'diel - Jeuno: The First Walk, and the first-ever chaotic alliance raid, The Cloud of Darkness (Chaotic). Wield the new job-specific weapons inspired by winning entries in the Weapon Design Contest, or enjoy new voice clips from the Scions of the Seventh Dawn while playing Doman mahjong!

tl;dr: as an inactive player, you get free to play every now and then. it's typically around the time of a large patch release, for 4 consecutive days.
Text below is accurate as of 2025 but from where I see the past few times throughout the years, it hardly changes so I will mainly post link only from here on.

Campaign Schedule
From Thursday, January 9, 2025 at 12:00 a.m.
to Thursday, February 6, 2025 at 6:59 a.m. (PST)

* Please note that a subscription to FFXIV is required to continue playing after the campaign period.

Free Login Period
Four days including the day on which users first log into the launcher. This period ends on the fourth day at 11:59 p.m. (PST).

Strongest taichi master you've ever met?

Takudan — Sat, 02 Apr 2022 13:41:36 +0800

Lemme start. I've been in my company more than 5 years (IT, I write code and design solutions), I have finally found this taichi GOD. Let's call him Gawd.

I first worked with gawd around 2 years ago. It was a production support issue escalated by EU business unit to get help from us, so I got assigned to help investigate and resolve.

When I first got in, I requested log files, documents, a replica environment, whatever I needed to get started lah. I was told that gawd is main contact person so I wrote to him lor... Then he said, "I just got assigned to replace X who just went on leave, so I have no idea any of these things, lemme forward you the info I got from X" okay fine... Maybe he needed time to get into the issue.

Then he used the same goddamn reason every time I asked for something.... Best work he did? "Can you please send a daily report of your progress? I need to report to the customer regularly "

Halfway into the investigation... He suddenly said it's his last day and X would take back the issue. WAH taichi master indeed... Just resign and whatever your work is can just throw away. Nvm, I'm happy also, no need to deal with gawd anymore!

Fast forward to this year, we meet again but he's in a partner company collaborating with us to work on customer project. Fuck me.
He currently owns a test automation module where he's supposed to investigate daily and report if there's any performance issue.

Let me just summarise the "work" he did:
- gawd: "we're supposed to test on a production like environment, but I don't know the expected data volume. Can you please check with X?"
- gawd: "we need production like environment." But it's early sprints (agile) and customer doesn't even have everything. "Can you please escalate to get the data needed?"
- gawd, when we say we have high priority functional issues to work on, "but we need this done. Can you please escalate to PM?" None of us replied his email
- gawd, when I said our business consultants are busy with their own functional issues so test cases aren't ready, "can you please talk to the stream lead to prioritise on this?"
- gawd as host of a meeting, "I forgot to take down notes. Takudan can you please send out a summary to everyone involved?
- gawd, when we completed a few scripts and he started analysing, "script isn't working." We analysed in his environment and found his data is empty, OF COURSE IT DOESNT WORK???
- gawd, when the script finally works, "the log files are too difficult to read. Can you please improve the logging?" Basically he's saying his job is too hard, pls fix.

To be fair, I write codes so it is indeed my job scope to handle the test scripts. Also, we have other business consultants who handles the functional part, so it is their job scope to handle the test cases. I have worked with so many good colleagues in my company, everyone does their part mostly, but this one guy really tops my list as taichi master.

Edit P.S. he is not Malaysian.

/rant

What's your story?

Visiting mamak

Takudan — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 13:36:26 +0800

[Twt]https://twitter.com/mishgardian_tea/status/1438190064681451529[/Twt]

Where:
Plot 40, 18th Ward, Mist

Just found out today from friends. I'm so going there tonight 😂😂

Dupe tag, please

Takudan — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 22:19:34 +0800

The forum is a great place to share information and advices, but it is a shame that it's so infested by trolls providing cool stories and advices even on the serious sections (outside /k).

Why
It's dangerous and toxic for the community to continue housing the dupes who only want to stir things up like racial/gender/religion/any sort of discrimination.

With the tag, people can better decide whether to feed the troll for fun like in /k, or take their stories/advices with a pinch of salt when it's a serious topic.

How
Dupe tag can be assigned in two ways:
1. By mods: you cannot untag yourself if so. Can be disputed but case by case basis.
2. By yourself: un/set yourself under user settings, useful in times you need help but do not want to be associated with your main account.

For now I assume mods detect dupes manually, and that's fine. Community can use the report button as usual to report bad behaviours, then mods can act upon dupes who appear too often on the baddies list.

"show possible/confirmed dupe of X"?
Honestly I don't want this to be a blanket implementation. Some people dupe without malicious intent and that's fine for me. I just don't like when some take it too far to bring their toxicity to the forum and there is no repercussions to their "real self".

Annual budget tracker (Google spreadsheet)

Takudan — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 00:29:03 +0800

Try this spreadsheet today for your financial planning!

Google spreadsheet link
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Mfi...dit?usp=sharing

Features
- Summary of your expenditure and savings per month, throughout the year.
- Net worth summary which plucks the numbers from your spreadsheet to help you track your investments allocation.
- Link your previous/next spreadsheet to bring forward the calculations across your spreadsheets.
- Upgrade your spreadsheet to the template's latest version to enjoy new features.

Sample summary:

What does it mean to have a good plan?
The sheet contains various conditional formatting to tell you whether there's something good/bad. In general, I use the traffic light colouring: red is bad, yellow is "almost there", green is good. Let's look at some of the details below.

Summary > ending balance
You may notice red/yellow indicators.
Red means you have not enough for the next month. The sheet tracks your budget monthly and that strictly means from first day to last day of the month, e.g. 1-29 February 2020, 1-30 June 2021 etc. Having that said, it does not have the level of detail to tell you how much you're spending by day; this sheet cannot tell you how much you will spend on 20 June, and how much you will have left by the end of that day. What this sheet does however, is that it assumes all your expenses are clocked in on day 1 of the month, and your salary comes in much later. This means, in order to have a healthy plan, you need to have enough ending balance on the month before, to cover for the next month, e.g.
Income = 10k
Jan ending balance = 2k
Feb expense = 5k
Result > Jan ending balance is shown as red, as it is NOT enough to cover for Feb expenses. It assumes that Feb's income will not come on time.
Note:
- investments are not calculated as part of the expenses. This sheet assumes that your investments will be done AFTER your pay day of the month, so that in case you have extra expenses, the first outflow you can cut is your investment, without affecting the your life comforts i.e. the essentials and nonessentials. This is to provide more flexibility for you to manage for when you get your huge bonus for the month, that you want to do the investment in the same month itself, without hurting your KPI directly (i.e. red ending balance indicators even though you know it's fine).

Yellow means you have too much idle cash; the current threshold/formula = your income * 2. This sheet intends to facilitate investments/savings. The ending balance is meant to kept at a healthy "just enough" level, while allowing you to slowly "plant your money tree" to save for the rainy days. As you start your journey in financial planning, investment will eventually come into the picture because money depreciates; you need to let the power of compounding help cushion the fall. Meaning, you need to let your money generate more money for you. But it does not have to be risky investments that do not fit your appetite; that is all up to you, and it is completely up to you to decide where you will keep your extra cash -- all you have to do is jot that down under Investment tab. I have yet to figure out a good way to visualise extraction your invested money to cover for sudden shortfalls.

Summary > buying power
This answers "how much can I splurge this year?" Notice the value never exceeds a certain point even though your ending balance is much higher -- this is because the amount you can splurge is not simply the ending balance, but it also takes account of:
- how much you're supposed to invest up to that month
- how much needed for subsequent month expenses
Note: having 3,000 buying power on March, but 2,000 on April, means that you're NOT supposed to YOLO spend all 3,000 on March itself. Because, in doing so, you will end up in 1,000 deficit once you enter April, as indicated by the red ending balance if you add a 3,000 expenditure.

Summary > Target savings
Dictated by your % target based on your income.
Green = target reached
Yellow = almost there
Red = far from target
This is completely up to you. You ought to balance this out with your expenses and buying power, so that you can have a comfortable life for yourself, while not forgetting to save. The sheet guides you by telling you result of your configurations and inputs, but ultimately, you're the one deciding how much you should save, or spend.

Summary > Debit/Credit weightage
Visualises your debit (money in) vs. credit (money out) to see distribution of your expenses throughout the year. Ending balance is counted towards credit weightage to balance DR/CR. When balance is negative, it is displayed as red to the left.

Developer's note
This is my little personal project to publish it for everyone to use, for free. Please feel free to PM me for any question/support regarding this spreadsheet, or financial planning in general, to manage your expenditures better. Note that I am not qualified and do not provide investment advice.

My motivation comes from wanting to improve my own sheet, since I'm the #1 user after all! However, I do want this to work for more people too, so I want to know what you think about my spreadsheet, and whether you would like to use it:
If "not yet", what's stopping you?
If "no", why not?

Eventually, if time+passion+effort allows, I hope to come up with more formal guidelines (like YouTube videos) and channels to support this project.

US ban investments on 9 China companies

Takudan — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 16:45:59 +0800

Link: https://www.google.com/amp/s/globalnews.ca/...-sanctions/amp/

Personally I'm using TSG (IBKR platform) for overseas trading and I do have some investment affected. There was also a large dip before and it's overall a downwards trend now, I'm assuming because of people making their exit.

I'm not US citizen but I am using a US brokerage so... What does that mean for people like me?

Will my position(s) be forced to close in the coming November?
Can I even continue buying them via IBKR?

Any extra analysis also appreciated

COVID-19 long term effects

Takudan — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 14:56:50 +0800

tl;dr: covid-19 may have mild symptoms and aren't deadly to most, but its mid/long term effects that lasts from weeks to months affect the patients the most.

[fb]https://www.facebook.com/wsj/posts/10160526282138128[/fb]

I was able to access this post for free by reading it from the FB link directly. So I've copied pasted everything except pictures (and their captions) down below:

QUOTE

Nearly a year into the global coronavirus pandemic, scientists, doctors and patients are beginning to unlock a puzzling phenomenon: For many patients, including young ones who never required hospitalization, Covid-19 has a devastating second act.

Many are dealing with symptoms weeks or months after they were expected to recover, often with puzzling new complications that can affect the entire body—severe fatigue, cognitive issues and memory lapses, digestive problems, erratic heart rates, headaches, dizziness, fluctuating blood pressure, even hair loss.

What is surprising to doctors is that many such cases involve people whose original cases weren’t the most serious, undermining the assumption that patients with mild Covid-19 recover within two weeks. [sup]https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m3981[/sup] Doctors call the condition “post-acute Covid” or “chronic Covid,” and sufferers often refer to themselves as “long haulers” or “long-Covid” patients.

“Usually, the patients with bad disease are most likely to have persistent symptoms, but Covid doesn’t work like that,” said Trisha Greenhalgh, professor of primary care at the University of Oxford and the lead author of an August BMJ study [sup]https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3026[/sup] that was among the first to define chronic Covid patients as those with symptoms lasting more than 12 weeks and spanning multiple organ systems.

For many such patients, she said, “the disease itself is not that bad,” but symptoms like memory lapses and rapid heart rate sometimes persist for months.

In October, the National Institutes of Health added a description of such cases to its Covid-19 treatment guidelines, saying doctors were reporting Covid-19-related long-term symptoms and disabilities in people with milder illness.

“You don’t realize how lucky you are with your health until you don’t have it,” said Elizabeth Moore, a 43-year-old lawyer and mother of three in Valparaiso, Ind. Pre-Covid-19 she was an avid skier and did boot-camp workouts several times a week. Since falling ill in March, she has been struggling with symptoms including memory problems and gastrointestinal issues. She has lost nearly 30 pounds.

Estimates about the percentage of Covid-19 patients who experience long-haul symptoms range widely. A recent survey of more than 4,000 Covid-19 patients [sup]https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.19.20214494v1[/sup] found that about 10% of those age 18 to 49 still struggled with symptoms four weeks after becoming sick, that 4.5% of all ages had symptoms for more than eight weeks, and 2.3% had them for more than 12 weeks. The study, which hasn’t yet been peer reviewed, was performed using an app created by the health-science company Zoe in cooperation with King’s College London and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Another preliminary study looking mostly at nonhospitalized Covid patients [sup]https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.07.20208702v1[/sup] found that about 25% still had at least one symptom after 90 days. A European study [sup]https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.07.20208702v1[/sup] found about one-third of 1,837 nonhospitalized patients reported being dependent on a caregiver about three months after symptoms started.

With more than 46 million cases world-wide, even the lower estimates would translate into millions living with long-term, sometimes disabling conditions, increasing the urgency to study this patient population, researchers said. What they find could have implications for how clinicians define recovery and what therapies they prescribe, doctors said.

Doctors say anxiety caused by social isolation and uncertainty surrounding the pandemic may exacerbate symptoms, though that isn’t likely the primary cause.

Other viral outbreaks, including the original SARS, MERS, Ebola, H1N1 and the Spanish flu, have been associated with long-term symptoms. Scientists reported that some patients experienced fatigue, sleep problems and joint and muscle pain long after their bodies cleared a virus, according to a recent review chronicling the long-term effects of viral infections. [sup]https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/21641846.2020.1778227[/sup]

What differentiates Covid-19 is the far-reaching nature of its effects. While it starts in the lungs, it often affects many other parts of the body, including the heart, kidneys and the digestive and nervous systems, doctors said.

“I haven’t really seen any other illness that affects so many different organ systems in as many different ways as Covid does,” said Zijian Chen, medical director for Mount Sinai Health System’s Center for Post-Covid Care.

He described colleagues who were energetic, but after getting sick, had trouble getting through the day. He said he has seen up close how Covid-19 still affects their ability to do the things they love.

“We thought it was a virus that, once it does what it does, you recover and you go back to normal,” he said. Sometimes that isn’t the case, and that “is really scary,” he said.

A leading explanation for long-Covid symptoms is that immune-system activity and ensuing inflammation continue to affect organs or the nervous system even after the virus is gone, researchers said.

Some of the most compelling evidence for the inflammation theory comes from Covid-19 patients with signs of heart inflammation and injury months after illness. [sup]https://www.wsj.com/articles/some-covid-19-patients-show-signs-of-heart-damage-months-later-11600866000?mod=article_inline[/sup] One study looking at 100 Covid-19 patients two months after getting sick [sup]https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/fullarticle/2768916[/sup] found that 78 had abnormal findings on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, while 60 had cardiac MRIs indicating heart-muscle inflammation. The study included hospitalized, nonhospitalized and asymptomatic patients.

“Even those who had no symptoms and were young and fit…even in those patients we saw abnormalities,” said Eike Nagel, one of the lead authors and director of the Institute for Experimental and Translational Cardiovascular Imaging at the University Hospital Frankfurt in Germany.

Some patients had scarring on their heart imaging, he said, which worried him. The scarring wasn’t too serious, he said, but “we know from other studies that this is related to worse outcomes.”

Doctors also are reporting cases of long-Covid patients with gastrointestinal issues. Recent work has found the new coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2, in fecal matter and intestinal lining of some Covid-19 patients, suggesting the virus can infect and damage the cells of the gut. [sup]https://gut.bmj.com/content/69/6/973.full[/sup] The intestines have a high density of ACE2 receptors, a type of protein on the surface of cells, which SARS-CoV-2 uses to infiltrate cells. [sup]https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6499/50[/sup]

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A Persistent Multifront Attack
How chronic Covid-19 affects the body

Nervous System
Many patients report issues with concentration and memory, sometimes referred to as “brain fog.” Some say they forget what they’re trying to say or do. Neurologists seeing such patients say cognitive problems are among the most common symptoms.

Some neurologists say they are seeing patients with signs of dysautonomia, or dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system regulates involuntary functions such as breathing, digestion and heart rate.

Taste and Smell
Patients say it can take weeks or months to regain their senses of smell and taste. They say the loss of these senses affects not just their diet but their mental health.

Lungs
Some patients report persistent shortness of breath. Doctors often prescribe asthma inhalers and breathing exercises to help improve lung function. The exact cause is unknown. It could be related to aberrant nervous system function, lung injury or a compromised cardiovascular system.

Cardiovascular System
Many patients experience a racing heartbeat, or tachycardia, as well as extreme blood pressure changes. Some physicians think this could be related to an issue with the nervous system, particularly the autonomic arm, which deals with involuntary functions like heart rate and blood pressure.

Some patients have signs of heart-muscle inflammation weeks or months after infection, doctors and researchers say. In some cases, they don’t report any symptoms, while others say they have shortness of breath and chest pain.

Digestive System
Patients report issues with abdominal pain and diarrhea weeks or months after coming down with Covid-19. Some physicians are recommending avoiding certain foods, such as dairy and gluten.

Musculoskeletal System
Some patients report mild muscle and joint aches. Others have more severe pain.

Many patients also report persistent fatigue weeks or months after coming down with Covid-19, even when they had a mild or moderate course of illness and didn’t require hospitalization. The fatigue can be debilitating and get in the way of regular daily activities, like work and spending time with family.
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The virus also might cause changes in gut bacteria, said Brennan Spiegel, a gastroenterologist and director of health services research at Cedars-Sinai Health System, who has had patients come in with abdominal pain and diarrhea weeks or months after coming down with Covid-19.

Ms. Moore, the Indiana lawyer, got Covid-19 in March and initially felt better by the end of April. “I thought I beat this thing. I was ecstatic,” said Ms. Moore, who tested positive for coronavirus antibodies in May.

That month, her health took a sharp turn for the worse. She struggled with tachycardia, or a racing heartbeat, and blood-pressure fluctuations. Those symptoms improved, but she still has gastrointestinal problems. A recent test found stomach-lining inflammation. Pepcid, antihistamines and avoiding dairy products have provided some relief, but other symptoms such as memory deficits persist.

“I feel like there has to be some sort of next step,” she said, “because I’m not ready to accept this as my new reality.”

She enrolled in a research study at the Neuro Covid-19 Clinic at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, one of several clinics across the country [sup]https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-covid-19-symptoms-linger-demand-for-specialized-clinics-surges-11597925200?mod=article_inlineaiming[/sup] to find solutions for patients.

Some symptoms could be collateral damage from the body’s immune response during the acute infection, researchers said. Some patients might harbor an undetectable reservoir of infectious virus or have bits of noninfectious virus in some cells that trigger an immune response, they said.

Another possibility is that the virus causes some people’s immune systems to attack and damage their own organs and tissues, researchers said. A June study found roughly half of 29 hospitalized ICU patients with Covid-19 had one or more types of autoantibodies [sup]https://ard.bmj.com/content/early/2020/06/24/annrheumdis-2020-218009[/sup]—antibodies that mistakenly target and attack a patient’s own tissues or organs.

Doctors say some patients appear to be developing dysautonomia, or dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system, the part of the nervous system that regulates involuntary functions like breathing, digestion and heart rate, some researchers and doctors said.

David Putrino, director of rehabilitation innovation at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, said the majority of the more than 300 long-Covid patients being seen at its Center for Post-Covid Care appear to have developed a dysautonomia-like condition. About 90% of such patients report having symptoms of exercise intolerance, fatigue and elevated heartbeats. About 40% to 50% also report symptoms such as gastrointestinal issues, headaches and shortness of breath.

Dr. Putrino said inflammation from the virus might be disrupting the normal functioning of the vagus nerve—the body’s longest cranial nerve—which relays messages to the lungs, gut and heart.

As a member of the Johns Hopkins University varsity cross-country team, 19-year-old Christopher Wilhelm used to run 10 miles a day. Now, there are days he can’t even walk a quarter mile with his mom around their Maitland, Fla., neighborhood without feeling wiped out.

Mr. Wilhelm, who tested positive for Covid-19 in June, said his heart rate shoots up during those walks, ranging from 130 to 170 beats a minute. He was diagnosed recently with a form of dysautonomia characterized by fluctuations in blood pressure and heart rate when patients sit or stand up, a condition known as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS. His doctors also are evaluating him for cardiac issues. Medications he has tried haven’t yet helped his heart-rate spikes.

“After I tested positive, I was just expecting it to be two weeks of flulike symptoms, and then I’d pretty much be back to normal,” he said. “It’s been so long already, it’s kind of daunting.”

Six months after getting sick with Covid-19, Jennica Harris, 33, said she has persistent fatigue and problems with memory and concentration. She struggles to find simple words during conversations, often loses her train of thought and has developed a stutter.

“I usually know what I want to say when I want to say it, and I usually don’t hold back,” she said. “When I try to get my point across and I can’t, that hurts my confidence, my sense of self.”

The constellation of such neurological symptoms, along with persistent fatigue, joint pain and headaches, resembles myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, said Anthony Komaroff, a Harvard Medical School professor of medicine who has studied the syndrome for decades. The condition can follow certain viral and bacterial infections, he said. He thinks the condition likely follows Covid-19, too, at least in a portion of patients. A 2009 study of 233 SARS survivors found 27% met criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome four years after getting sick. [sup]https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/415378[/sup]

It still isn’t known whether the new coronavirus gets into the brain itself, or if Covid-19’s neurological symptoms stem from a body-wide inflammatory response, scientists say.

In autopsies of some Covid-19 patients, doctors have observed encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain. Small autopsy studies also have found preliminary evidence of coronavirus particles in regions of the brain important for smell. With other infections, viral particles have been found in the brains of patients with encephalitis, though it is rare, said Walter Royal, a neurovirologist and director of Morehouse School of Medicine’s Neuroscience Institute. What is more common is that the virus infects the lining of the blood vessels, causing damage and inflammation that in turn affects the brain.

How long it will take long-Covid patients to recover remains unknown. Dr. Putrino said most of them won’t get better on their own, and will need at least six months of structured rehabilitation.

“What tends to happen to people who don’t get treatment and don’t get the recognition they need is they slump down to a new normal of function,” he said.