“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
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. LCAC can develop from any COVID-19 variant and can occur in fully vaccinated individuals. It can affect children, adults and elders.
Read more about why we should be concerned about Long COVID in co-director JD Davids’ op-ed for The Guardian, and check out our Resources page for more information and supports.
Related resources
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
See Long COVID Physio website for translations into multiple languages including Arabic, Bangla, Spanish, and more.