Long COVID is a set of health issues after someone has COVID-19.
These could be: new health issues, ongoing issues, or worsening of previous symptoms or conditions.
Overview of Long COVID
Long COVID describes long-term symptoms following a COVID-19 infection. Long COVID is a complex chronic illness that shares many similarities with (or can lead to) known complex chronic conditions like myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS). Like other post-viral and infection-initiated conditions, research shows that Long COVID can be triggered by a mild or even asymptomatic infection.
Long COVID and associated conditions (LCAC) are estimated to develop in approximately 10% of all COVID-19 cases, and the risk goes up with subsequent infections. Over 10 million people in the United States alone could be experiencing LCAC. Many will not fully recover, and most are facing drastic care shortages and institutional bias – including skepticism that these illnesses even exist. Requiring history of a positive PCR test results to validate LCAC is a biased approach that does not consider gender disparities in testing accuracy or testing access issues – which tend to impact marginalized populations more significantly.
Read more about why we should be concerned about Long COVID in co-founder JD Davids’ op-ed for The Guardian, sign our pledge to fight for Long COVID Justice, and check out our Resources page for more information and supports.
Long COVID Facts
- Researchers estimate that over 400 million people worldwide are living with Long COVID and associated conditions (LCAC).
- Long COVID is an “umbrella” term. This means it can include many symptoms as well as other diseases or medical diagnoses.
- Long COVID is a biological disease that can affect all parts of the body. It affects people in all age groups, races and ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations. People with or without prior health issues can develop the disease.
- LCAC can develop from any COVID-19 variant and can occur in fully vaccinated individuals.
- Long COVID symptoms and health issues can look very different than the symptoms of the original COVID-19 infection.
- Long COVID can cause significant disability and can be fatal. It is a continuing health crisis.
“Long COVID (LC) is an infection-associated chronic condition (IACC) that occurs after SARS-CoV-2 infection and is present for at least 3 months as a continuous, relapsing and remitting, or progressive disease state that affects one or more organ systems.”
– National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), 2024
Long COVID video playlist
Check out this playlist of short videos by Long COVID Physio. Videos in the series include:
– What is Long COVID?
– Why is it called Long COVID?
– What are common Long COVID symptoms?
– Episodic nature of Long COVID
– Impact of Long COVID on day to day life
– Safe rehabilitation
– Pacing
– Exercise
“What is Long COVID?” video from Long COVID Physio
See the Long COVID Physio website for translations into multiple languages including Arabic, Bangla, Spanish, and more.
Related resources
A Long COVID Definition: One pager – National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
A Long COVID Definition: Full report – National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Long COVID Keeps People Out of Work and Hurts the Economy – Yale Medicine