Originally published September 27, 2023 4:00 pm PDT
The risks of contracting so-called long COVID are exaggerated from “major flaws” in past research.
QUICK FACTS:
- A study published in the British Medical Journal’s Evidence-Based Medicine found that studies on long COVID are inaccurate due to an “overestimate” of long COVID prevalence caused by “overly broad definitions, lack of control groups, inappropriate control groups, and other methodological flaws.”
- The study defined long COVID as a syndrome that results from COVID-19 and lasts for 12 weeks.
- Failure to have a precise definition may lead to misdiagnoses and greater healthcare spending.
- These flaws contributed to greater stress and concern over contracting the virus, the researchers assert.
- According to the researchers, fatigue, muscle pain, shortness of breath, and brain fog consistent with long COVID are also common in other upper respiratory viruses.
- “While post-infectious conditions common to other respiratory illnesses may be included in estimates of prevalence of lasting symptoms, we propose future research avoid the umbrella term ‘long COVID’ and instead more narrowly define certain post-COVID syndromes or symptoms,” the researchers explained.
- The study drew upon definitions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), and the Delphi definition for children and young people, arguing each of the definitions were inadequate.
- Some have criticized the study’s calls for different definitions, saying, “Long COVID simply didn’t exist four years ago, so researchers have had to get to grips with a new and challenging topic at top speed.”
- Senior Director of Biostatistical Science at Premier Research, Dr. Adam Jacobs, continued, “It is, therefore, not surprising that different studies have different estimates of the prevalence of long COVID, as studies have used different case definitions, different populations, etc.”
FROM THE STUDY:
- “In general, in the scientific literature, imprecise definitions have resulted in more than 200 symptoms being associated with the condition termed long COVID,” the researchers wrote.
- The study also rebuked current definitions of long COVID, as they “connote a permanent or long-term condition, such as epilepsy after bacterial meningitis, for example. However, there is good evidence post-infectious symptoms after COVID-19 improve over time even if some symptoms may take longer to improve than others.”
- “Our analysis indicates that, in addition to including appropriately matched controls, there is a need for better case definitions and more stringent (long COVID) criteria, which should include continuous symptoms after confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and take into consideration baseline characteristics, including physical and mental health, which may contribute to an individual’s post-COVID experience,” the study goes on to say.
- According to the researchers, “Inappropriate definitions and flawed methods do not serve those whom medicine seeks to help.”
- Therefore, “[i]mproving standards of evidence generation is the ideal method to take long COVID seriously, improve outcomes, and avoid the risks of misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment.”
BACKGROUND:
- According to Dr. Phillip Buckhaults, an expert in cancer genomics and a professor at the University of South Carolina, DNA contamination might be linked to certain severe side effects of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.
- “The Pfizer vaccine is contaminated with plasmid DNA, it’s not just mRNA,” Dr. Buckhaults stated during his testimony before the South Carolina Senate Medical Affairs Ad-Hoc Committee.
- Not only does the presence of DNA contribute to a “sustained autoimmune attack towards that tissue,” said Buckhaults, but there is also “a very real theoretical risk of future cancer in some people.”
