5 MYTHS ABOUT LONG COVID

Untruths about this post-pandemic condition have gone viral. Avoid them like the plague and stick to these facts.

- BY KATE ROCKWOOD

MYTH:

Long COVID isn't a real condition.

MYTHBUSTER

“Long COVID is very real and has very real biological causes,” says Lisa Sanders, M.D., medical director of Yale New Haven Health's Multidisciplinary Long COVID Care Center. People with long COVID may have characteristic abnormalities in blood tests, such as high or low white blood cell counts or low levels of the stress hormone cortisol; however, many will have normal blood tests. Other diagnostic tests have shown suspected effects: For instance, in some people with long COVID, the mitochondria—small structures in cells that are responsible for producing energy—aren't as good as usual at picking up oxygen from the blood, says Dr. Sanders. That partly explains why more than one-third of people with long COVID have exercise intolerance and nearly 12% have symptoms compatible with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). “The changes might be invisible, but they are there,” she says.

MYTH:

COVID boosters don't protect against long COVID.

MYTHBUSTER