@TheMemeticist@mas.to

While the usual quirks and limitations of the VA system data remain from prior studies using this data set, and should be stated again(skews older, male, etc.), there's an awful lot to take in from this paper. I'd highly recommend anyone who's still paying attention gives it a read.

A few pieces that stood out to me on the first read:

"We developed a definition of long COVID consisting of 323 ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes grouped into 143 ICD-10-CM functional groups that were significantly increased in our 367,148 patient post-COVID population. We define seventeen medical specialty long COVID subtypes including cardiology long COVID, neurology long COVID, and pulmonary long COVID."

...

"COVID-19 test positive patients were assigned novel signs, symptoms, or diagnoses included in our definition of long COVID at a rate of between 59.7% (percentage based on COVID positive patients tested at the VA) and 76.6% (percentage based on all COVID positive patients with diagnostic history and follow up diagnoses one to seven months after test)."

...

"Our data did not indicate that vaccination was protective against the development of long COVID. However, vaccination resulted in significantly lower rates of novel ARDS in the post-covid period (13.2% CI: 10.4%-16.9%) as compared with the unvaccinated population (19.6% CI: 18.1% - 21.2), p<0.001."

...

"We found 143 upregulated diagnostic groups, with odds ratios as high as 23. We also found seventeen upregulated medical specialty groupings containing between three and twenty-one signs, symptoms, or diagnoses. This provides strong evidence for a broad definition of long COVID."

...

"Our definition shows that the long-term effects of COVID-19 are associated with damage to numerous body systems including the kidneys, heart, eyes, and nervous system. Our results are corroborated by other studies. Cognitive dysfunction (brain fog) is often associated with long COVID and can be difficult to diagnose and treat."