Long COVID is associated with multisystem dysfunction affecting the cerebrovascular, autonomic, peripheral, respiratory, and inflammatory systems, which may be caused by low-grade inflammation that is either systemic or targets the vascular system.
While it is widely recognized that the long-term consequences of COVID-19 infection are being felt by hundreds of thousands of Americans, there is no universal clinical case definition for long COVID. Symptoms that are present more than 4 weeks post-infection is the cutoff the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) uses to define Long COVID; the World Health Organization defines it using a period of 3 months from the onset of COVID-19 with symptoms.
On 21-22 March 2022, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop with subject-matter experts to examine the long-term health effects of COVID-19 and potential implications for the Social Security Administration. The speakers, panelists, and workshop participants presented a broad range of information relating to Long COVID and disability.
The following are key points and select excerpts by the from the committee report:
Symptoms
The risk of ongoing symptoms after an acute COVID-19 infection is considerable, especially in young adults and females. Long COVID occurs even in patients with mild infections. Recovery for the vast majority of long COVID cases occurs within a year.Commo …