Report: Many falsely tested negative for COVID-19 early in the pandemic and developed long COVID

(CNN) - New research suggests that early in the pandemic, millions of people who tested negative for COVID-19 might have developed what is known as long COVID.

For those with long COVID, symptoms can linger for weeks, months and even years after the first onset of the disease.

”This greatly impacts patients’ quality of life as well as their cognitive function,” said Dr. Igor Koralnik, chief of Neuroinfectious Diseases and Global Neurology at Northwestern Medicine.

Koralnik says at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, swab testing was limited and blood tests were not as advanced. He said that many people had symptoms of the disease and developed long COVID, but could not be tested in time to get a positive test result or got a false negative result.

In the study published this week, Koralnik said blood was tested from 29 patients who were negative for COVID-19 but showed long COVID symptoms.

Researchers were looking for two proteins associated with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 ,and they say 41% of those tested had evidence of exposure to the virus.

”It is really vindicating for those patients to know that. Those patients deserve the same care as those who test positive for COVID-19, and they also deserve to be enrolled in research studies,” Koralnik said.

Doctors said some of the most common lingering symptoms reported from those who have long COVID are brain fog, difficulty with memory and concentration, problems with smell and taste, muscle pain and intense fatigue.

One in 13 adults in the United States reported having symptoms of COVID-19 lasting three or more months, according to a 2022 survey by the National Center for Health Statistics.

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