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As physicians and research scientists probe the pathogenesis (how the disease works in our bodies) of COVID-19, perhaps the biggest ‘black hole’ relates to the spectrum of persistent debility we call Long COVID (LC). Treating this complex LC ‘syndrome’ is obviously difficult if clinicians don’t understand the physiological basis of what’s going on. Currently, it is a very confusing area.

Over the next few weeks, my intent is to find out as much as I can about LC by reading published material and communicating with colleagues, then summarize what I’ve found in this series. One thing is certain: any attempted synthesis at this stage will, at best, be a 'work in progress'. Rather than begin at the beginning and develop the LC story systematically from a ‘bottom-up’ of case definition and possible disease mechanisms, I thought I’d go first to the question so many are asking – can we develop LC after being infected with an Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2?