OAN’s Brooke Mallory
6:10 PM – Friday, March 15, 2024
According to Australian medical researchers at Queensland Health, the term “long COVID” should be thrown out and not taken seriously from this point forward, since the symptoms of those who have claimed to be afflicted for at least a year were no different from those of any ordinary virus, like the flu.
The government-sponsored medical researchers in Australia insinuated that the term is merely an excuse for those with poor immune systems and memory issues.
The phrase gained popularity when a large number of individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 experienced an increase in “virus fatigue symptoms,” which are typically mild and would have gone unreported, according to South West News Service.
“We believe it is time to stop using terms like ‘long COVID,’” said Dr. John Gerrard, Queensland’s Chief Health Officer, who examined the study. “This terminology can cause unnecessary fear, and in some cases, hyper-vigilance to longer symptoms that can impede recovery,” Gerrard warned.
To come to their conclusion, Queensland Health researchers polled 5,112 patients with “long COVID” symptoms who were 18 years of age or older.
The subjects reported feeling weary, dizzy, coughing, shortness of breath, brain fog, with rapid or irregular pulses and changes in taste and smell. Researchers selected the participants from a group of Australians who had tested positive or negative for COVID-19 in late spring 2022, and then one year later, they asked them about their symptoms and overall health.
In the spring of 2023, 16% percent of respondents reported symptoms, and three percent claimed they had “moderate-to-severe functional impairment” in their day-to-day activities.
“No evidence was found that adults who tested positive in 2022 were experiencing this increased level of impairment at a higher rate than those who tested negative or those who simply had the flu,” according to The Post.
The completed manuscript of the findings is scheduled for a presentation at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Barcelona, Spain, sometime in 2024.
“In health systems with highly vaccinated populations, long COVID may have appeared to be a distinct and severe illness because of high volumes of COVID-19 cases during the pandemic,” Gerrard said.
“However, we found that the rates of ongoing symptoms and functional impairment are indistinguishable from other post-viral illnesses,” he added.
“These findings underscore the importance of comparing post-COVID-19 outcomes with those following other respiratory infections, and of further research into post-viral syndromes.”
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