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1) 🇺🇸 A new paper in Nature shows that viral reactivation is common in COVID-19, associated with severity and not primarily a consequence of immunosuppression. The association with Long Covid, however, was far from clear.

2) This was a major study with 1,154 participants hospitalized with COVID-19 across 20 US hospitals between May 2020 and March 2021. Viruses were detected in blood, nasal swabs, and lung and airway fluid (in patients who were intubated).

4) The measurements were taken prior to the definition of Long Covid, but the study does include patient-reported outcomes (PROs) from which they made 4 LC subgroups.

5) The paper notes, however: "Upon evaluating viral reactivation during the acute stage of COVID19, no significant relationship was found with PRO groups." So there was no link between viral reactivation during acute infection and Long Covid.

6) It's only when they looked closer at viral detection during the convalescent period (after the acute infection) that they found a link with Anelloviridae being more prevalent in the LC subgroup physical function.