New research gives insight into long COVID

In many ways, long COVID remains a mystery.

“There’s no playbook for it,” said Dr. Raj P. Kotak, Chief Medical Officer of AdventHealth Carrollwood.

The CDC defines long COVID as having COVID-19 symptoms that last at least three months.

“The persons with more severe disease are more likely to have long COVID. However, people can have mild disease and also have long COVID,” said Dr. Jill Roberts with the USF College of Public Health.

At the beginning of the pandemic, most people with severe symptoms were hospitalized because of extreme breathing issues. If they survived, they usually had lingering respiratory issues.

Doctors have said that’s changed, and patients who come into the hospital now because of COVID-19 can have a range of concerns.

“It can affect anything from head to toe, whether it’s your pulmonary, your respiratory system, your GI tract, your muscular-skeletal system. There’s no way to tell and no way to say what organ system is going to be affected by it,” said Kotak.

New research sheds light on how the virus is evolving and that everyone is at risk of developing long COVID.

“Unfortunately though, we’ve now seen that long COVID can now be in any age group,” said Roberts.

Studies suggest about six million children are likely living with long COVID.

While any body part can be affected, people most commonly report symptoms like brain fog, dizziness, fatigue, and stomach issues.

Recent data show younger children have reported anxiety and new phobias like fear of crowded spaces.

New research also continues to stress the importance of vaccinations.

“Really important point is that almost every single study is showing, the more likely you are to be vaccinated, the less likely you are to actually have long COVID,” said Roberts.

“The vaccines do help to protect against long COVID, which is really important. Some of that residual respiratory issues or residual brain fog that people have or that prolonged fatigue. It can help with that,” said Dr. Laura Arline, Chief Quality Officer for BayCare.

The updated COVID-19 vaccines are now available. If you’ve recently had a COVID-19 infection, doctors recommend you wait three months before getting the booster.

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