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Large Long COVID Study and Major Media Articles Underscore Link to ME/CFS: Health Rising Jan. 22, 2021

Mary

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Cort does it again: Large Long COVID Study and Major Media Articles Underscore Link to ME/CFS - Plus Countdown for the NIH - Health Rising

A important long COVID study, “Characterizing Long COVID in an International Cohort: 7 Months of Symptoms and Their Impact“, was recently released which left no doubt that long COVID patients are closely tracking with people with chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) symptom-wise. For once, the ME/CFS community was the beneficiary of superb timing: the study arrived not long after Congress had appropriated over a billion dollars to study long COVID.

The preprint (meaning it has not been peer-reviewed) study from Body Politic researchers and patients assessed a wide variety of symptoms only to have the top three symptoms associated with ME/CFS pop out. Just as in ME/CFS, fatigue (77.7%), post-exertional malaise (PEM) (72.2%) and cognitive dysfunction (55.4%) were the most common symptoms found in those still sick after six months. The researchers didn’t target these symptoms. Out of the 205 symptoms they asked about, these rose – like the cream in milk – to the top all by themselves.