Before the COVID-19 pandemic, medical science understood that short-term infections may trigger ongoing physical symptoms in certain individuals, such as chronic Lyme disease patients. However, many patients experiencing these long-term symptoms felt ignored. 

When the first wave of COVID-19 infections hit the United States in 2020, a cohort of patients reported they were not feeling better. With the large number of people now experiencing the same phenomenon from COVID-19, more attention and research needs to be done to help them.* 

How Common Is Long COVID?

Over two years into the pandemic, we have learned a lot about long COVID, but we still have much more to unearth. Early research estimates that anywhere from 10 to 50 percent of unvaccinated people infected with the virus develop long COVID. Vaccines may help to reduce the risk but do not eliminate it. 

Why Is Long COVID Not Being Discussed More?

Public health news has put more focus on acute severe COVID-19 issues like hospitalizations and death. They have largely ignored the long-term effects that the virus has on so many people. 

Similar to other long-term illnesses caused by an acute infection, there appears to be a lack of concern with researching long COVID. While there are theories about the effect of virus on the immune system and other tissues of the body, we do not have research to confirm or rule out any theory. 

According to Harvard University researcher Susan D. Block, the modern medical field has taken an “if you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist” view. Medicine has a long history of stigmatizing diseases it does not understand and cannot yet readily measure.

Understanding and researching long COVID may help illuminate treatments for other conditions, such as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). “I believe understanding the pathogenesis of long COVD not only will help reveal parallel mechanisms for ME/CFS but also may hold a key to understanding autoimmune diseases, as many autoimmune diseases occur postinfection,” says Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist and head of a laboratory at the Yale School of Medicine. 

With the growing number of people experiencing long COVID, it is time to face medicine’s biggest weaknesses. Researching these long-contested illnesses along with proper physician training to care for these patients will not only help the patients of today, but the patients for generations to come. 

*O’Rourke, M. (2022, March 1). COVID Long Haulers Are Calling Attention to Chronic Illnesses. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/covid-long-haulers-are-calling-attention-to-chronic-illnesses/?error=cookies_not_supported&code=88262b19-c38b-4a0a-af31-887a660afe18