New study suggests no correlation between COVID and 'long COVID'

A new peer-reviewed study in the Journal of the American Medical Association has debunked yet another component of the COVID story line. A team of 19 medical doctors and academic researchers (PhDs) led by Dr. Joel Selvakumar examined how common it is for young people to suffer from so-called “long COVID". They found that people testing negative for COVID are just as likely to have the symptoms of the allegedly new condition known as “long COVID” as people who tested positive for COVID. 

The upshot of this shocking finding is “long COVID” is not a new condition or disease. A set of symptoms such as fatigue, pain and anxiety are labelled “long COVID” if a person tested positive for COVID. If the same person, with the same symptoms, tested negative for COVID, they are simply said to be suffering from those symptoms but not from “long COVID”.

Been there before

The new diagnosis of “long COVID” is reminiscent of the changed protocol for establishing cause of death during the pandemic. If a late stage cancer patient entered a hospital already having been told they had about a week to live, and then lived 2 weeks but tested positive on one of their daily COVID tests, they were listed as a COVID death. If they continuously tested negative, they were listed as a cancer death. Likewise with heart disease and other such ailments.

This is not the first time cause of death for someone with centuries-old diseases is blamed on a brand new virus. Professor Peter Duesberg, who lost his research funding for opposing the government line on AIDS, points out in his book, Inventing the AIDS Virus, that this is exactly what was done with HIV:

This war has been fought in the name of the virus-AIDS hypothesis, which holds that HIV, the AIDS virus, is a new cause of thirty old diseases . . .

1. Kaposi's sarcoma + HIV-antibody = AIDS 

Kaposi's sarcoma - HIV-antibody = Kaposi's sarcoma 

2. Tuberculosis + HIV-antibody = AIDS 

Tuberculosis - HIV-antibody = Tuberculosis 

3. Dementia + HIV-antibody = AIDS 

Dementia - HIV-antibody = Dementia [Pages 3-4].

Of course, if HIV was causing those diseases it would be expected to be more prevalent in HIV positive individuals. Something else did make people more likely to suffer from those “thirty old diseases,” but it was recreational drug use, not HIV, as laid out in a report by Frontline News, AIDS without HIV:

Not only is it indeed the case that AIDS appears in HIV-negative drug abusers, but it has been known to public health officials for decades. . . . Even in patients who eventually tested positive for HIV, huge declines in their immune systems' function were seen when they were still HIV-negative, but after “extensive use of recreational drugs”.

New evidence

The new study looked at Norwegian adolescents and young adults and found that “long COVID” symptoms were reported in 49% of people who tested positive for COVID six months earlier. Surprisingly, 47%, of people who tested negative for COVID six months earlier also reported “long COVID” symptoms. So the chance of suffering “long COVID” is statistically the same for those who had COVID and for those who did not have COVID. 

Misleading name

What then, is “long COVID”? "Long COVID” is also known as Post-COVID-19 Conditions (PCC). The name implies that the conditions must be related to COVID-19, which, of course, is the disease caused by a new strain of the age-old coronavirus family of viruses identified in 2019. But, a quick look at the CDC list of symptoms qualifying one as suffering from “long COVID” if they have those symptoms 4 or more weeks after testing positive for COVID, reveals that these symptoms were hardly new to the world in 2019.

General symptoms

• Tiredness or fatigue that interferes with daily life
• Symptoms that get worse after physical or mental effort (also known as “post-exertional malaise”)
• Fever

Respiratory and heart symptoms

• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
• Cough
• Chest pain
• Fast-beating or pounding heart (also known as heart palpitations)

Neurological symptoms

• Difficulty thinking or concentrating (sometimes referred to as “brain fog”)
• Headache
• Sleep problems
• Dizziness when you stand up (lightheadedness)
• Pins-and-needles feelings
• Change in smell or taste
• Depression or anxiety

Digestive symptoms

• Diarrhea
• Stomach pain

Other symptoms

• Joint or muscle pain
• Rash
• Changes in menstrual cycles

What they found

Dr. Joel Selvakumar's research team focused on a few of these symptoms to categorize subjects as having “long COVID” when those symptoms are present:

• fatigue
• post-exertional malaise
• sleep problems
• pain
• anxiety
• depression, and 
• negative affect

After examining subjects in both the positive and negative COVID groups, they concluded that classifying these symptoms as a new disease, is questionable:

The 6-month point prevalence of PCC [long COVID]) was similar in infected and noninfected individuals, thus questioning the usefulness of the WHO case definition.

What then, correlates with “long COVID" if not COVID? The researchers have the answer to that as well — psychosocial issues make one more likely to suffer prolonged symptoms, with or without a positive COVID test.

Symptom severity at baseline was the main risk factor, and correlated with personality traits. Low physical activity and loneliness were also associated with the outcome. These results suggest that factors often labeled as psychosocial should be considered risk factors for persistent symptoms. [Emphases added].

Significantly, lockdowns exacerbated "low physical activity and loneliness".