Researchers at McMaster University found that a vast majority of people who experience “long Covid” symptoms completely recover within a year.
A report in the European Respiratory Journal by immunologist Dr. Manaly Mukherjee reveals that 75% of subjects overcome the disease while another 25% are left with lingering symptoms.
“There is no point being alarmed,” Mukherjee told the Toronto Star.
“You don’t want to ignore long Covid symptoms, but have faith you will get better and that by 12 months possibly all the symptoms will be gone.”
The medical community is not settled on the existence of “long Covid”, with some physicians denying its existence altogether.
Stanford School of Medicine professor of health policy Dr. Jay Bhattacharya has pointed to several studies including one published in the European Journal of Pediatrics that shows “long Covid” is “vanishingly rare.”
“Another enormous study of long-COVID in children with a control group finds that the syndrome is vanishingly rare. It is far past time for doom-mongering doctors & public health officials, who are causing parents to panic for no good end, to desist,” said Bhattacharya.
The study itself concludes that “Long Covid in children is rare and mainly of short duration” with most symptoms resolving within one to five months.
According to Mukherjee, however, her own experience and clinical trials indicate that some people do experience lingering symptoms as if they had previously had the flu.
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has a page on “post Covid-19 conditions,” which claims that those who were hospitalized for Covid-19 are at a greater risk of experiencing long-term effects.
“Post COVID-19 condition is not COVID-19. Symptoms can be quite different from those experienced during the initial infection. It refers to the longer-term effects some people experience after their COVID-19 infection,” explains PHAC.
“Symptoms can sometimes disappear and reappear without having another diagnosis to explain them. Some patients report that over-exertion (both mental and physical) may make the condition worse.”
