Research published on Friday from Australia suggests that “long COVID” may be no different from the long-term effects of other infectious diseases, such as influenza.
John Gerrard, chief health officer of Queensland, announced on Friday that preliminary findings from a cohort research study may show chronic symptoms of long COVID, including fatigue, brain fog, and changes to taste and smell, occur at similar rates to other infectious diseases.
“I want to make it clear that the symptoms that some patients described after having COVID-19 are real, and we believe they are real,” Gerrard said in a press conference Friday. “What we are saying is that the incidence of these symptoms is no greater in COVID-19 than it is with other respiratory viruses, and that to use this term ‘long COVID’ is misleading and I believe harmful.”
Long COVID by the numbers
Although there are different definitions for long COVID, the World Health Organization defines it as when a patient still experiences symptoms three months after the initial COVID-19 infection if the symptoms cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis.
The study examined 5,112 adults who had symptoms of a respiratory illness and underwent PCR testing between May and June of 2022, of which nearly 2,400 were positive for COVID-19 and nearly 1,000 were positive for influenza.
A year later, 16% reported symptoms, with nearly 4% of respondents saying they suffered from moderate-to-severe impairment in their daily activities.
The results show that the levels of impairment were similar following an influenza or COVID-19 infection. Symptoms typically associated with long COVID were experienced by both groups at similar rates.
Gerrard says the term “long COVID” may “cause unnecessary fear, and in some cases, hypervigilance to longer symptoms that can impede recovery.”
“They wrongly imply there is something unique and exceptional about longer-term symptoms associated with this virus,” Gerrard said.
Gerrard also argued that a possible reason for the interest in long COVID compared to chronic symptoms of other infections is due to the volume of COVID-19 infections.
“Somewhere between four and five million Queenslanders have caught COVID-19 over the last couple of years,” Gerrard said, “so even a very small complication rate translates to a significant number of people when you have so many people infected.”
Critics and a need for more data
Critics of Gerrard’s conclusion argue that it may be premature to write off long COVID as nothing distinct from other chronic illnesses.
Philip Britton, a pediatric infectious disease physician from the University of Sydney said the conclusion that long COVID is not unique may be “overstated and potentially unhelpful.” This is in part due to the study design, which relied upon patient-reported symptoms via survey rather than pathology or lab experiments.
Paul Griffin, the Director of Infectious Diseases at Matter Health Services in Brisbane, Australia, who was not involved in the study, welcomed the results but said more research was necessary to develop treatment plans for patients with long-term symptoms.
“I think investing in some guidelines for how practitioners can help long COVID patients, and then bringing together appropriate expertise into long COVID clinics for those that require it would … be really helpful for those people that are suffering the worst,” Griffin told the Australian Broadcasting Company.
Future research funding a possibility
Some research scientists and physicians are calling for the creation of a new branch at the National Institutes of Health to study the chronic consequences of infections, ranging from COVID and influenza to Lyme disease and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Long COVID patient advocate Ryan Prior argued in a piece published by the Federation of American Scientists that the interest in investing in long COVID research has sparked “an historic opportunity” for the United States to lead in research in all of these associated conditions, due to their shared pathophysiology and symptomatology.
“For decades, millions of sufferers have experienced debilitating illness, gaslighting, misunderstanding, lack of insurance coverage, disability, and no FDA-approved treatment options,” Prior said.
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The NIH launched a long COVID clinical trial program, RECOVER, in July 2023, the largest cohort study for a post-infection illness. The program received a significant amount of funding, with a $1.15 billion initial investment from Congress in 2021. In 2024, the NIH allocated an additional $515 million over the next four years.
Congress has also shown more recent interest in combatting Long COVID, which captured the attention of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in January. At the time, Sanders argued that more research is necessary to alleviate symptoms.
