The Harvard Gazette Study captures variability of a condition that affects millions. Millions of patients have developed long COVID, a chronic condition that involves a range of symptoms, including fatigue, brain fog, dizziness, and palpitations, that persist for at least three months after infection. In a new analysis of adult participants in an initiative called Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery, or RECOVER, Mass General Brigham researchers identified eight different trajectories that long COVID can take, depending on severity, duration, and whether symptoms improve or worsen. Their findings are published in Nature Communications.
“This study addresses an urgent need to define the differing long COVID trajectories,” said senior author Bruce Levy of Mass General Brigham’s Department of Medicine and Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and the Hersey Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic at Harvard Medical School. “Our findings will help determine what resources are needed for clinical and public health support of individuals with long COVID and will also inform efforts to understand long COVID’s biological basis.”