There’s a good chance that the numbers are overstated because of methodological difficulties, but it’s not obvious, and the numbers are high enough that it would be worth concern even if they’re 50% overstated.
Also, reddit is full with scary stories about Long Covid. Obviously that doesn’t mean much because you get scary stories in any data set with tens of millions of people, but I think it’s quite telling that a lot of people who self-declare as having Long Covid report having messed up senses of smell (e.g., strawberries tasting like burnt tyres). That’s not usually a sign of normal depression or burnout. It’s clearly Covid related, and it seems to happen frequently enough to produce reddit communities filled with such posts every day, and the media did report on it, and the symptoms seem to be connected (e.g., the people who report the long-lasting loss of sense/taste also have other fatigue-related symptoms, which seem to have gone up in people with past Covid as well).
Notably, those studies are still based on surveys and self-reports.
Compare supposed long lyme disease or previously, supposed candida infection. In those cases a lot of people self-report various general, common symptoms like tiredness. In neither case is the disease medically recognized. Rather, its existence is doubted by medical authorities. In addition to these two, I there’s a series of past similar scares, with the same properties. These scares include at least electricity oversensitivity and worries about mercury dental implants.
In all these cases it seems likely that there is no physiological long-lasting disease. Rather, because belief in a long disease spreads, people start to wrongly attribute their general symptoms and issues in life to it. Things such as tiredness, depression and pain get self-reported in large numbers.
Now, it seems to me somewhat likely that long covid will turn out to be in the same category. There is a lot more self-reported cases of long covid than long lyme disease. But belief in long covid is also a lot more widespread.
Why do medical authorities not apply to same skepticism to long covid as they did to eg long lyme disease? One possibility is that there’s a perceived (maybe justified) need to spread beliefs about how covid is dangerous, and so a different standard of evidence is applied.
Your theory doesn’t explain the prevalence of highly unusual Covid-specific symptoms among the mix that makes up Long Covid (I’m thinking of strawberries smelling like burnt tyres)
There’s a plausible mechanism with Covid: Other viruses cause fatigue syndroms as well, probably autoimmune related, and it’s plausible that the SARS-Cov-2 virus has properties that trigger this comparatively often.
There’s a second plausible mechanism with Covid: It affects blood vessels and lots of organ systems at once, so lasting damage causing fatigue seems to make sense. (Note that this mechanism makes less sense for asymptomatic infection leading to Long Covid, which some anecdotal reports claim is also happening).
You fail to mention that there’s a history of ignorant / narrow-minded doctors gaslighting patients with uncommon or not well researched actual chronic illnesses.
Some people’s Long Covid symptoms are too outlierish in their severity to be anything that develops normally. E.g., people who used to be highly into sports report that they get out of breath just climbing stairs, and that this persists for a period of years. My impression is that this sort of thing never just happens without an identifiable cause. (I’m uncertain whether that type of Long Covid can happen after asymptomatic infection. That would be important to know to ascertain the use of vaccines for preventing Long Covid!)
Your theory doesn’t explain the prevalence of highly unusual Covid-specific symptoms among the mix that makes up Long Covid (I’m thinking of strawberries smelling like burnt tyres)
The persistence of anosmia doesn’t entail that other symptoms are caused by Covid. (IIRC the relevant cells in the nose take a while to regenerate). Though I agree this provides some evidence that Covid is the cause.
There’s a second plausible mechanism with Covid: It affects blood vessels and lots of organ systems at once, so lasting damage causing fatigue seems to make sense
This predicts that you’d find organ damage in these patients. Are there studies showing clear organ damage in people with mild cases 6 months later?
Some people’s Long Covid symptoms are too outlierish in their severity to be anything that develops normally. E.g., people who used to be highly into sports report that they get out of breath just climbing stairs, and that this persists for a period of years. My impression is that this sort of thing never just happens without an identifiable cause.
I disagree. This does happen without an identifiable cause.
BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57584295
The Times: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/why-is-britain-now-the-capital-of-long-covid-grjpvzfvw
There’s a good chance that the numbers are overstated because of methodological difficulties, but it’s not obvious, and the numbers are high enough that it would be worth concern even if they’re 50% overstated.
Also, reddit is full with scary stories about Long Covid. Obviously that doesn’t mean much because you get scary stories in any data set with tens of millions of people, but I think it’s quite telling that a lot of people who self-declare as having Long Covid report having messed up senses of smell (e.g., strawberries tasting like burnt tyres). That’s not usually a sign of normal depression or burnout. It’s clearly Covid related, and it seems to happen frequently enough to produce reddit communities filled with such posts every day, and the media did report on it, and the symptoms seem to be connected (e.g., the people who report the long-lasting loss of sense/taste also have other fatigue-related symptoms, which seem to have gone up in people with past Covid as well).
Good points.
Notably, those studies are still based on surveys and self-reports.
Compare supposed long lyme disease or previously, supposed candida infection. In those cases a lot of people self-report various general, common symptoms like tiredness. In neither case is the disease medically recognized. Rather, its existence is doubted by medical authorities. In addition to these two, I there’s a series of past similar scares, with the same properties. These scares include at least electricity oversensitivity and worries about mercury dental implants.
In all these cases it seems likely that there is no physiological long-lasting disease. Rather, because belief in a long disease spreads, people start to wrongly attribute their general symptoms and issues in life to it. Things such as tiredness, depression and pain get self-reported in large numbers.
Now, it seems to me somewhat likely that long covid will turn out to be in the same category. There is a lot more self-reported cases of long covid than long lyme disease. But belief in long covid is also a lot more widespread.
Why do medical authorities not apply to same skepticism to long covid as they did to eg long lyme disease? One possibility is that there’s a perceived (maybe justified) need to spread beliefs about how covid is dangerous, and so a different standard of evidence is applied.
Your theory doesn’t explain the prevalence of highly unusual Covid-specific symptoms among the mix that makes up Long Covid (I’m thinking of strawberries smelling like burnt tyres)
There’s a plausible mechanism with Covid: Other viruses cause fatigue syndroms as well, probably autoimmune related, and it’s plausible that the SARS-Cov-2 virus has properties that trigger this comparatively often.
There’s a second plausible mechanism with Covid: It affects blood vessels and lots of organ systems at once, so lasting damage causing fatigue seems to make sense. (Note that this mechanism makes less sense for asymptomatic infection leading to Long Covid, which some anecdotal reports claim is also happening).
You fail to mention that there’s a history of ignorant / narrow-minded doctors gaslighting patients with uncommon or not well researched actual chronic illnesses.
Some people’s Long Covid symptoms are too outlierish in their severity to be anything that develops normally. E.g., people who used to be highly into sports report that they get out of breath just climbing stairs, and that this persists for a period of years. My impression is that this sort of thing never just happens without an identifiable cause. (I’m uncertain whether that type of Long Covid can happen after asymptomatic infection. That would be important to know to ascertain the use of vaccines for preventing Long Covid!)
The persistence of anosmia doesn’t entail that other symptoms are caused by Covid. (IIRC the relevant cells in the nose take a while to regenerate). Though I agree this provides some evidence that Covid is the cause.
This predicts that you’d find organ damage in these patients. Are there studies showing clear organ damage in people with mild cases 6 months later?
I disagree. This does happen without an identifiable cause.
But it raises the probability.