Three months ago, the 28-year-old postdoctoral research associate from Newcastle, UK, was on the road with friends in a band as they toured the French Alps.
He came down with symptoms of Covid-19 and, like many coronavirus patients, spent weeks in bed.
Unlike other people, however, Green's life has not returned to normal.
"Since then he has been intermittently with extreme fatigue and fatigue," he said.
Every day he has brain fog, difficulty concentrating, and problems with short-term memory that make reading, writing and speaking more difficult.
"Breathing was very difficult," he said. "I don't feel like I have my full breathing capacity. If I walk for a minute, I'll be really exhausted."
The deep mark that illness has made on Green's life is not uncommon.
"About 80% will experience a mild or asymptomatic version of Covid. It's the remaining 20% that worry us," said Dr. Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner, professor of medicine at the University of Texas McGovern Medical School.
"One in five patients will suffer from a severe form of the disease."
Some young people are not getting better
As the number of cases increases among young people, Green and others in their twenties want to share stories about the wreckage Covid-19 has made in their lives.
These patients have the potential to experience permanent lung damage, including scarring and reduced lower breathing capacity.
"What we don't fully appreciate yet is what happens when you get infected, get serious illness and recover?" said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, at the International BIO Convention in June.
"We don't know the extent of full or partial recovery, so we have a lot to learn," he said.
Young people, who are less likely to die from the coronavirus than their grandparents, are an important target of these lessons.
Whether they contracted the virus among the snow-capped peaks of the Alps or in the heart of the epidemic in New YorkThe district of the city of Queens,in their twenties falls ill with Covid-19. And stay sick.
Their stories are a warning from millennials to millennials: don't gamble with coronavirus because this diseasecould permanently damage your body.
"What I like to tell my students and my patients is that this is a lottery that you don't want to win," Ostrosky-Zeichner said.
Read more: What we now know about the symptoms of Covid-19 (and what to do)28-year-old postdoc feels like a leper
At home in Newcastle, Green is in his fourth consecutive month with Covid-19.
He has a doctor's note saying he shouldn't go back to work full time, but he chooses a casual project when he can. There isn't much else you can do to rest in bed.
Symptoms persist and are severe.
"Two weeks ago I had a crushing feeling in my chest," he said. "It was like I couldn't breathe. It was the worst."
Last week, while driving, he felt weak and had to pull over by the side of the road to call an ambulance to pick him up. Fearing to pass out behind the wheel, he decided to take a break from driving.
He joined the Long Covid Support Group, where he shared his experiences with more than 6,000 other people around the world with similar symptoms following a Covid-19 infection.
His girlfriend, a nurse, lives in the city, but apart from a few socially distant walks, they haven't seen each other in person for months.
"When I feel bad, I wonder if it's Covid, or do I pick up every bug because my immune system is so weak?"
Read more: Physical distancing measures could reduce new Covid-19 cases by 13%It is caught in limbo somewhere between illness and health. He has a disease that the medical facility is still struggling to define, and it is unclear whether it is safe for him or for others to be in contact with each other.
"You feel a little leper, really," he said.
28-year-old writer needs an inhaler to train
When Morgan Swank got sick at Christmas, she texted her friends, "I'm dying. I've never felt this before."
The Atlanta-based television writer has credits on "Saturday Night Live," "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," and "The Mindy Project," and she now runs a production company that focuses on promoting women's projects and of color filmmakers.
Swank had a fever for three weeks and lost his sense of smell for nine days. Although sick with what she thought was the flu, she passed out at an airport on an international trip, she said.
A non-smoker who trained three times a week, she wasn't used to fighting for air.
Swank eventually tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies in April, but her lungs are damaged from a month of hard coughing.
She is back in training, and in addition to the boxing gloves, she now keeps the Albuterol inhalers with her boxing gloves in her gym bag. The inhalers help him complete his training.
"I have to use an inhaler every two minutes to invigorate my lungs," she said.
Even short conversations can be difficult. "I hear it in my voice just talking to you," she said in a phone interview. "I'm out of breath."
Getting sick again is her biggest worry and she feels her immune system is now compromised.
"I really wish people were wearing their masks all the time," she said. "If I get another respiratory infection like the flu and my lungs are damaged, I may need to be hospitalized."
29-year-old lawyer has tested positive for Covid-19 twice
When Jordan Josey first got Covid-19, he felt like he was suffocating. The disease partially collapsed one of his lungs.
"Shortness of breath was my biggest problem," he said. "The coronavirus takes your energy completely away from you. You are still dizzy and tired. I could sleep for 13 hours."
Josey, who works as a lawyer in Macon, Georgia, tested positive for the coronavirus on April 1. He shared details of his 103-degree temperature and chest pain in his local newspaper.
He finally started to feel a little better and tested positive for antibodies. He donated his blood plasma so that others could benefit from his immunity as well.
But at the end of June, the same shortness of breath and lightness returned. He was out of breath folding the laundry. He tested positive again.
"I just sat there and shook my head," he says. "I didn't want to do it again. It was horrible."
On July 1, he dropped the bomb in a text message to his family. With an immunocompromised mother and a grandfather undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, Josey's second Covid-19 diagnosis is making the whole family nervous.
"Nothing in my test indicated that it was a second strain," he said. "I thought, 'How is that possible?' And really, nobody knows. Doctors think it may have re-emerged. "
One of the things that irritates him is the common belief that people will be fine after they get the coronavirus and test positive for antibodies.
"I don't buy that at all," he said. "My doctor said I might even test positive a third time."
Like many in their twenties, Josey and his wife enjoyed meeting friends for dinner before heading to a concert, bar, or club. With him positive test twice and positive test once,they have not done so since February.
"This stuff is no joke. I'm young and healthy, and it's done all of that to me," Josey said. "The coronavirus is now a much bigger threat than when I got sick. And all this in conjunction with the people who go to bars, nightclubs and big parties. "
24-year-old college student has warning for his generation
Nearly 1,000 miles in Queens, New York, Kevin Garcia is also grappling with the long-term fallout from Covid-19. He desperately wants his peers to be safe as the number of cases increases again.
The student is currently being fired from his job during the pandemic. But even if he wasn't, he doesn't feel fit to return to work. It only works around 75%, and just going up a flight of stairs is a major challenge.
A far cry from his pre-pandemic days of going to work, school, the gym and bars in one busy marathon day.
His symptoms started on March 25 when he had to call an ambulance. "I felt something strange in my body."
Within a week and a half, he felt like his body was in "all-out war."
After more than two weeks of muscle aches, fatigue and gastrointestinal problems, he managed to survive.But his new life is different from the old one.
"I saw doctors removing corpses every day. I heard ambulances probably 50 times a day, "he said. "I'm glad I'm alive because a lot of people my age have died."
He, too, wants to fight the conventional narrative that young people can get sick, become immune and resume their former lives. And he wants the world to know that post-Covid symptoms are not imaginary.
"You don't tell people with Covid that they have anxiety," he explained. "We are nervous. We have a disease that you don't know well enough. We survived it, and now we have symptoms that come and go."
"I hope it's not chronic and that I don't get bedridden," he says. "I have a long life ahead of me."
He will be 25 in December and never imagined he would celebrate a quarter of a century with so much humility, and almost certainly without a party. But now, giving up on parties is his highest priority for himself and his generation.
"After the Spanish flu, we had the roaring twenties. It could be the case after the coronavirus. It is temporary," he said. "But don't risk your life. You can die from it."
His message for young people was that if you didn't want to hear it from public health officials, you could take it away from him: wear a mask. Avoid the crowds. Wash your hands. Don't touch your face.
"I don't think anyone should watch someone die for an hour or two of fun," he added.
"We can have fun days when it is all over. Sacrifice the time now."
