New research suggests that symptoms linked to long COVID could vary depending on which COVID-19 variant a person is infected with, but infectious disease experts say they are not yet convinced.
depending on which COVID-19 variant a person is infected with, infectious disease experts say they are not completely convinced this is the case.
When the Alpha variant was the dominant strain, there were more instances of muscle aches and pains, insomnia, brain fog, and anxiety and depression among long COVID patients. Meanwhile, symptoms such as the loss of smell, difficulty swallowing and impaired hearing were less common.However, infectious disease experts question the accuracy of the study, and point to difficulties in assigning specific long COVID symptoms to different variants.
“It's a retrospective observational study, which always raises questions of bias in terms of whether [this] is actually truly due to the Alpha variant, or is it due to some other factors that went along with the Alpha variant,” he told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on March 30. “There's so many variables changing in parallel that to pinpoint any one of those and claim that variable as the cause of some pattern is hazardous.
“That's a big limitation,” he told CTVNews.ca on March 30 in a phone interview. “You really don't know unless you actually take a specimen and you do that genomic sequencing and find out [whether] this person was infected with Alpha [or] the original virus.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
It's time for a new COVID-19 vaccination strategy in Ontario, experts urgeOntario is entering a sixth wave of COVID-19 with few remaining public health measures and experts say now is the time for a renewed vaccination strategy aimed at boosting third-dose uptake, shots for kids and preparing for wider fourth doses.
Read more »
'We were a little surprised how effective it was': UBC researcher on new potential COVID treatmentICYMI: Canadian researchers have developed a nasal spray that prevents and treats infection of the Delta variant - via healthing_ca .UBC healthing health COVID19
Read more »
Ontario reports 10 net new COVID-19 deathsOntario reported 10 net new COVID-19 deaths on Saturday, with most recent hospitalization data temporarily unavailable.
Read more »
855 COVID-19 patients in Ontario hospitals; 9 net new deathsThe number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 continues to rise as the province reported nine net new deaths on Saturday.
Read more »
'We were a little surprised how effective it was': UBC researcher on new potential COVID treatmentICYMI: Canadian researchers have developed a nasal spray that prevents and treats infection of the Delta variant - via healthing_ca .UBC healthing health COVID19
Read more »
UK hits record COVID-19 levels; nearly 5 million infectedThe prevalence of COVID-19 in the U.K. has reached record levels, with about 1 in 13 people estimated to be infected with the virus in the past week, according to the latest figures from Britain's official statistics agency.
Read more »