Understanding Long COVID and Breakthrough Infections Quiz

There is currently no clear definition of long COVID, and the data on it are a mess.

The data suggest that, for most people, the tail of symptoms from COVID is not significantly different from the tail of symptoms from other viruses.

People who get a breakthrough infection after vaccination report no higher frequency of COVID symptoms than those who never had COVID at all.

Persistent symptoms of fatigue, loss of smell, and coughing happen to a reasonable proportion of adults post-COVID, even after mild breakthrough infections.

In some cases, these take months to resolve.

The study found that the prevalence of symptoms compatible with long COVID is low in a randomly selected cohort of children assessed 6 months after serologic (blood) testing.

The CLoCk study out of the UK showed how rare long COVID is and also assessed the mental health status of teens. Nearly everyone, including children, got better eventually, on average after 8 weeks.

As pediatric infectious disease expert Dr. Shamez Ladhani commented about this study: “In conclusion, a year into the #COVID pandemic, teens were experiencing a wide range of symptoms often unrelated to #SARSCoV2 infection. That 1 in 3 teens reported feeling worried/sad/unhappy highlights the mental toll of the pandemic, lockdowns & social isolation on teenagers.”