I had a flare (could barely use my arms, and was in pain) after a mild case of COVID. Was on 6 mg before; went up to 10mg for two weeks. I started another taper from there: 0.5mg every two months. My Primary Care Physician said that slow rate would reduce the chances of another flare.

Hi, Christopherc, Okay, so this is how I understand it. A healthy person has working adrenal glands, which produce cortisol and send it out to your body as needed. So, when you become emotional, or active, or sick, the adrenals recognize this and they send out more cortisol to get you through your current "crisis". But when we take prednisone, your adrenal glands basically shut down and don't produce cortisol, because they sense that the prednisone is doing their job for them. The difference is, WE are controlling the amount of prednisone your body is getting and it's a stable amount every day. There is no producing more or less based on your changing needs each day. So if you get sick, or are more active than usual on a given day, or having something else that is stressing you out, the prednisone might not be enough to take care of those "special" occasions like your adrenal glands normally would. So this is why, it's a good idea when you're sick to up your dose of prednisone. (Of course, you would need to discuss this with your doctor.) Further it's also a good reason why you should pace yourself - not doing too much physical activity that is unusual for you two days in a row, and if your are fatigued, you need to allow yourself to rest. Recently I had covid, so I upped my prednisone by 5 mg/day (with my doctor's blessing) for 6 days. Then went right back down to my normal dose within 2 steps. No problem. I hope this answers your question. Just a little bonus aside - they also gave me Paxlovid and I rebounded on it. Covid for over 2 weeks. But again. All went well.