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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32932 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 27, 2023

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I would add Long Covid to this list of illnesses. Of course, post-viral symptoms from a nasty viral infection are a real thing that impact some non-trivial number of people, but the distribution of Long Covid doesn't make much sense if it's that. We have a disease that can't be identified with reliable physical markers; per the CDC:

A positive SARS-CoV-2 viral test (i.e., nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) or antigen test) or serologic (antibody) test can help assess for current or previous infection; however, these laboratory tests are not required to establish a diagnosis of post-COVID conditions. SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR and antigen testing are not 100% sensitive. Further, testing capacity was limited early in the pandemic so some infected and recovered persons had no opportunity to obtain laboratory confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Finally, some patients who develop post-COVID conditions were asymptomatic with their acute infection and would not have had a reason to be tested.

Even more strikingly, Long Covid correlates with belief in having Covid rather than positive tests:

Conclusions and Relevance The findings of this cross-sectional analysis of a large, population-based French cohort suggest that persistent physical symptoms after COVID-19 infection may be associated more with the belief in having been infected with SARS-CoV-2 than with having laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection. Further research in this area should consider underlying mechanisms that may not be specific to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. A medical evaluation of these patients may be needed to prevent symptoms due to another disease being erroneously attributed to “long COVID.”

The CDC demographic breakdown of who says they've had Long Covid is fascinating - women report it much more frequently than men, but transgendered people more still, bisexuals report Long Covid much more than straight or gay people, and there doesn't look like any correlation between races and states that makes sense with infection rates or severity of illness. Other work shows much higher rates among people with self-reported histories of anxiety.

As Scott suggests, I'm not saying that these people aren't experiencing something quite unpleasant, but I am saying that it's often not a product of a strictly viral or immunologic cause.

I would add Long Covid to this list of illnesses. Of course, post-viral symptoms from a nasty viral infection are a real thing that impact some non-trivial number of people, but the distribution of Long Covid doesn't make much sense if it's that.

Good call, added to the list.

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