According to government data, more than 100 million people in the United States have had covid. For about 15% who have had the virus, it's meant prolonged symptoms and long covid. Physicians and researchers are still struggling to understand a lot of things about the condition. Our digital health reporter has written a lot about long covid. One thing they have had trouble with is defining it. There was a study that tries to step towards definitions. >> Researchers in Boston surveyed thousands of patients and asked them, what are your symptoms? What they found was echoing what people are saying about long covid. They whittle them down through infection history, statistical modeling into symptoms they say form the hallmark of long covid. Things like brain fog, dizziness. Post-exertion malaise. If you get up to walk across the room it wipes you out. Things people used to do without thinking about, now they are exhausted. It points to how transformational this disease is and we are just beginning to understand it. Richard schuurs -- researchers are calling it an attempt to form a common language. John: Any link between covid and vaccination status? >> They took different survey responses and broke them into four different clusters. Looking at types of symptoms and severity. People who tend to have the worst symptoms were those who did not have two vaccine doses and had been infected with covid multiple times. That combination is rough for people who end up with long covid. John: Some experts have reservations. >> One of the big concerns as we are so early in the process. Researchers say that a diagnostic tool. They will take the study and diagnose someone one way or another. What it does is form a common language around how we can talk about the disease, create clinical trials to better understand treatments and work towards creating diagnostic tests. Giving someone a test and saying, do you have this? Another things researchers will tell you is they did not use lab data to see if these people did have long covid. It's survey data which has its limitations, but another step in this process would be, do they have an immune response the suggests they have these disorders? John: You talked to a lot of people experiencing long covid. What did they tell you not only about their experiences and symptoms but getting medical care? >> It has been such a big deal for so many people. One patient to said if you are lucky enough to find a physician who will listen to you, that's going a long way. So many times it's like a round robin of medical care trying to find someone who will listen to them instead of saying it is in your head and get the care they need. A lot of people describe their care as trial and error. A lot of people go to Facebook groups, they describe the weight as being six months or more. The wait lists support those stories. It's been a story for people, so many of them struggled to just get up and walk across the room much less trying to get transportation or childcare. >> Earlier you mentioned looking for antibodies. What is being done to further understand this condition and figure out the best ways to treat it? Great question. That is one of the things this study supports, looking at these 12 symptoms, how can we treat those symptoms and design clinical studies that are targeting those symptoms and see what happens when we do. Are there areas where we need to do more research, looking at long covid in pediatric patients, pregnant people. Those are part of this broader initiative from the nih which the study is a part of, but there is certainly a long wait to go and patients have been waiting a long way. John: Thank you very much.
