Long COVID Coverage
Cutbacks Force Long-COVID Clinic Closures: What Now?
2025.10.01
Since 2021, the UNC COVID Recovery Clinic served thousands of patients struggling with post-COVID symptoms. But the loss of multiple funding sources forced it to shutter its doors for good over the summer of 2025. This closure underscores the precarious outlook facing other COVID rehabilitation facilities across the US and elsewhere. Directors of other clinics say they may be next, with federal officials drastically cutting funding for health programs. Many clinics are still experiencing waitlists and backlogs, doctors say, even as burned-out staff grapple with worries over the future of its operations. Read the full story here.
Artificial Intelligence Arrives in Long COVID Diagnostic and Treatment Fight
2025.08.26
As healthcare systems continue to grapple with identifying and managing long COVID, artificial intelligence (AI) is showing promise as an important tool that could one day expand scientists’ understanding and even lead to new diagnostics for the condition. Three recent studies demonstrated how machine learning and AI algorithms can be leveraged to process vast amounts of complex clinical notes, hospital data, and patient data. Read more here.
Long COVID Gene Variants: A Step Toward a Diagnostic Test?
2025.07.23
A large-scale global study has identified genetic variants that are risk factors for long COVID, a discovery that helps researchers better understand the biological systems involving the disease and one small, early step toward the elusive goal of developing a long COVID diagnostic test. Read the full story here.
MDs’ One-Word Summary of Long COVID Progress: ‘Frustration’
2024.06.10
Researchers and clinicians now have a greater understanding of what health agencies formally call post-COVID condition, but the wide spectrum of symptoms, slow progress in launching pharmacologic clinical trials, and the research toward understanding the underlying causes mean standardized diagnostic tests and definitive treatments remain elusive. This piece follows a doctor and his patient as they navigate the complexities and challenges around long COVID. Read the full story on Medscape.
For Some MDs, Long COVID Burnout Is a New Reality
2024.04.06
Dhaval Desai is one of thousands of physicians across the United States who have experienced burnout and depression, exacerbated by the pandemic. After 4 years, the impact is still being felt. I spoke with Desai about his experiences, a journey he documented in his book, Burning Out on the Covid Front Lines. Read the full story here.
Long COVID: New Info on Who Is Most Likely to Get It
2023.12.27
The COVID-19 pandemic may no longer be a global public health emergency, but millions continue to struggle with the aftermath: Long COVID. New research and clinical anecdotes suggest that certain individuals are more likely to be afflicted by the condition, nearly 4 years after the virus emerged.
People with a history of allergies, anxiety or depression, arthritis, and autoimmune diseases and women are among those who appear more vulnerable to developing long COVID, said doctors who specialize in treating the condition. Read the full story here.
Inside a Long COVID Clinic's Fight to Meet Crushing Patient Needs
2023.11.17
Insufficient funding from state and federal health agencies towards long COVID has led to significant hurdles in patient care, especially for vulnerable and underserved communities, according to interviews and surveys with more than a dozen clinics, doctors, advocates, and patients. At the same time, a lack of training and education on long COVID within the broader medical community is also hurting patients. I explore these challenges through the experiences of one long COVID clinic at the University of Washington.. Read the full story here.
'Snake Oil' Fake Cures for Long COVID Leave Patients at Risk
2023.04.28
From fad diets and vitamins to "blood washing" and stem cell therapy, long COVID patients are seeking out experimental therapies in a desperate bid to find hope and relief from debilitating symptoms. But doctors worry about the potential harm — both physical and financial — some of these unproven and overhyped treatments could cause. Read more here.
Three Years On, Why Don’t We Know the Extent of Long COVID?
2023.03.15
More than 3 years into the pandemic, finding out how many Americans have long COVID – and what to do about it – has proved to be far harder than identifying those infected with the virus who have recovered or died from it.
How best to simply define, diagnose, measure, and treat it have remained elusive, putting patients and doctors in an impossible situation. But what is clear is that even at the lowest estimates, the CDC said in June 2022 that 1 in 13 Americans (7.5%, or nearly 26 million) had long COVID. But some research suggests that figure underestimates the actual number of Americans who are affected. Read the full story here.
Omicron Much Less Likely to Cause Long COVID, Study Finds
2023.03.10
Health care workers infected with the COVID-19 Omicron variant were far less likely to experience significant long COVID symptoms than those who contracted the original SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to new research out of Switzerland. Read more here.
Inflammation and Immunity Troubles Top Long COVID Suspect List
2023.02.01
Nonstop inflammation and immune problems top the list of potential causes of long COVID, but doctors say it’s growing clear that more than one thing is to blame for the wide swath of often debilitating symptoms that could last months or even years. Many experts believe some combination of biological processes – including the virus hanging around in our bodies, inflammation, autoimmunity, tiny blood clots, immune system problems, and even the reactivation of dormant viruses, could be the culprit. Read the full story here.
Long COVID Risk Makes It Worth Avoiding Second Infections
2022.12.19
Alexander Truong, MD, has been seeing long COVID patients for more than 2 years but thought the numbers would have significantly dwindled by now. Instead, a steady flow of patients still shows up at the Emory Executive Park post-COVID clinic he and a colleague launched in fall 2020 in Atlanta. And among patients infected more than once, the symptoms appear worse.
COVID-19 is definitely not over, experts say, and each time someone gets infected, they risk developing long COVID. A prior infection does not erase the risk. Read the full story here.
'A Huge Deal': Millions Have Long COVID, and More Are Expected
2022.11.16
Roughly 7% of all adult Americans may currently have had long COVID, with symptoms that have lasted 3 months or longer, according to the latest U.S. government survey done in October. More than a quarter say their condition is severe enough to significantly limit their day-to-day activities – yet the problem is only barely starting to get the attention of employers, the health care system, and policymakers.
With no cure or treatment in sight, long COVID is already burdening not only the health care system, but also the economy – and that burden is set to grow. Many experts worry about the possible long-term ripple effects, from increased spending on medical care costs to lost wages due to not being able to work, as well as the policy implications that come with addressing these issues. Read the story here for a snapshot of how many people likely have long COVID in the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere, its impact, and what needs to be done, according to experts.