Sonia Zúñiga
Virologist at the National Biotechnology Centre (CNB-CSIC)
This paper studies a cohort of patients with long covid over several years. The conclusions reached are of limited novelty, as they are in line with many other published studies, and emphasise the importance of further research into this disease that has emerged in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic. This disease can be highly disabling, the mechanisms that cause it are not known and there are no specific treatments.
The authors are aware of the limitations of the study in that, for example, although they were able to conclude that vaccination reduces the risk of long covid (in line with what is already known from other studies), they were not able to study the influence of reinfection on the risk of covid. From other studies it is known that reinfections increase the risk of long covid.
The study joins all previous studies in pointing out that, as the virus continues to circulate, long covid is and will continue to be a public health problem.