COVID fanaticism birthed many disasters, from school closures to lockdowns to the apotheosis of Anthony Fauci — but none was so utterly mad as the idea of “long COVID,” a mysterious condition that dogged sufferers months after infection and was used to justify the endless continuance of every draconian rule.
Now a new Australian study shows the idea was always wrong — just in time for (God help us) International Long COVID Awareness Day.
Dr. John Gerrard, Queensland’s chief health officer, oversaw a study of 5,000-plus Australians with fatigue, cough and other symptoms associated with long COVID; these sick Aussies had taken COVID tests with both positive and negative results.
The study recorded their symptoms in spring 2022 and a year later. The result: Those who had tested positive for COVID did not experience long-term impairment at a higher rate than those who tested negative (or simply had the flu).
“We believe it is time to stop using terms like ‘Long COVID,’” said Gerrard. The “terminology can cause unnecessary fear, and in some cases, hyper-vigilance to longer symptoms that can impede recovery.”
Damn right.
The study shows the disease is an utter phantasm, part of the endless litany of socially chic ailments beloved by the anxious and affluent.
Think of all the self-diagnosed mental illness and neuro disorders on TikTok.
Worse, evidence has been public since 2021 suggesting that most people claiming to have long COVID never had COVID to begin with.
That is: Whatever condition or illness they were suffering from had nothing to do with the virus — but they wanted to be labeled COVID victims, and/or someone “official” wanted to count them.
The Queensland study should prompt a mea culpa from the public health experts and journalists who’ve talked “long COVID” into a supposedly serious deal.
It won’t, of course.
There’s too much money to be made from fear-clicks and research grants, and nearly all public health institutions are too corrupt to take honest stock of their errors.
But rational people everywhere should be grateful that yet more data confirm what they knew all along.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
