There’s a lot here from the past couple of weeks! Most importantly, we have multiple independent confirmations of the immune dysregulation in people with Long Covid via controlled studies. We may be closer to a biomarker with the central finding of persistent complement activation, which would help in both managing individuals with Long Covid and clinical trials testing candidate interventions.
The new publications that confirm the protective power of vaccination against Long Covid cannot be underscored enough. There is general lack of awareness of this benefit of vaccines, and except for not getting Covid or a reinfection, it is the best way to protect against Long Covid.
The potential neurologic damage that is occurring from Covid continues to be underestimated, as the 2 new publications highlight, and to so many previous ones that have demonstrated nueroinflammation-induced injury.
We desperately need large, rigorous, randomized clinical trials to test treatments. So far the only one we have in a gut microbiome intervention as I previously reviewed, from Hong Kong, and not yet replicated.
Into our 5th year of Covid, the chronic sequelae of Long Covid, which can be profoundly disabling, and continues to be inadequately acknowledged. The risk has not gone away, especially with the massive number of infections globally that have been seen during the JN.1 variant rise to dominance. Fortunately, the science and research presses on to illuminate the pathobiology and means of prevention. Hopefully, 2024 will the year we finally get some validated treatments to alleviate so much suffering that’s out there.
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