Long-covid symptoms are less common now than earlier in the pandemic

On Mar 18, 2023

March 18, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

“Long covid is a complicated beast,” one researcher said. (Da’Shaunae Marisa for The Washington Post)

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Americans infected with the coronavirus’s omicron variant are less likely to develop symptoms typical of long covid than those who had covid-19 earlier in the pandemic, according to the largest-ever study of who is most vulnerable to being sickened — or debilitated — by the virus’s lingering effects.

The analysis of nearly 5 million U.S. patients who had covid, a study based on a collaboration between The Washington Post and research partners, shows that 1 in 16 people with omicron received medical care for symptoms associated with long covid within several months of being infected. Patients exposed to the coronavirus during the first wave of pandemic illness — from early 2020 to late spring 2021 — were most prone to develop long covid, with 1 in 12 suffering persistent symptoms.

This pattern mirrors what leading doctors who treat long covid — and some scientists who study it — have noticed as the coronavirus pandemic evolves. But the reasons they offer for the shifting rates are closer to conjecture than to proof.

“Long covid is a complicated beast,” said Ziyad Al-Aly, director of the Clinical Epidemiology Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and a major researcher into the disease.

Long-covid symptoms less likely after omicron

A study of 4.9 million people in the United States who had covid-19 between early 2020 and January 2022 shows a total of 7.2 percent sought care for symptoms typical of long covid. The rate declined with successive waves. The study found the symptoms can be common but are more frequent after the covid infection.

Note: The baseline rate is the share of patients who reported

new symptoms in the six months before infection. The rate

after covid is the share with new symptoms between one

month and six months after the infection.

Source: Epic Systems research

EMILY M. ENG/THE WASHINGTON POST

Long-covid symptoms less likely after omicron

Note: The baseline rate is the share of patients who reported new symptoms

in the six months before infection. The rate after covid is the share with new

symptoms between one month and six months after the infection.

Source: Epic Systems research

EMILY M. ENG/THE WASHINGTON POST

Long-covid symptoms less likely after omicron

A study of 4.9 million people in the United States who had covid-19 between early 2020 and January 2022 shows a total of 7.2 percent sought care for symptoms typical of…

Long-covid symptoms are less common now than earlier in the pandemic

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