Studies of long COVID shed light on other chronic conditions

[Eastling]

What the title says.

Here and there I've been following news of studies into "long COVID," the chronic symptoms that persist in up to a third of COVID patients that include brain fog, fatigue, loss of smell/taste, reduced lung function, neuropathic pain, and frankly all sorts of unpleasant things. One thing that keeps coming up: long COVID seems to resemble known post-viral syndromes such as myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME (formerly known as chronic fatigue syndrome).

This article from six months into the pandemic offers some early speculation; this one, published today, gives some more up-to-date information.

Post-viral syndromes are still something of a mystery in medicine; despite recent research, a lot of doctors have a history of being skeptical and dismissive of ME/CFS because of its vague symptoms (and I'm sure it doesn't help that it's much more commonly reported by women than men). With the newly disabled population of people with long COVID to put pressure on the medical community and open up research avenues, might treatment of other chronic conditions improve? Or will we just be looking at another segment of the population being disenfranchised by ableism and its assumptions?

[PerditaPickle]

With the newly disabled population of people with long COVID to put pressure on the medical community and open up research avenues, might treatment of other chronic conditions improve?

I bloody well hope so!  But more than that, I'm going to spread the word as far and as wide as I can, so thank you for those links.