Thread by @ahandvanish

In a study of (mostly male) #LongCOVID patients in the military, those with lab-confirmed COVID diagnoses were 69% less likely to have anxiety/mood symptoms!

This supports the idea that LC patients w' false negatives have more anxiety bc they can't access the care they need.
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The study also found that a lack of lab-confirmed diagnosis led to a huge delay in #LongCOVID care: 8.5 weeks for those w' confirmation, 16 weeks (4 months!!) without.

Those without lab confirmation were also 63% more likely to have pain, likely because of lack of care. 2/

Link is here:

militaryhealth.bmj.com/content/jramc/… 3/

This is in line with @Dr2NisreenAlwan &al finding that #LongCOVID patients w' confirmed diagnoses were:

1) more likely to have adequate rest
2) more likely to have had time off
3) less likely to experience loss of income
4) less likely to be unable to live alone at 6 weeks

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Link to second reference is here with coauthors @dgurdasani1 @ClaireHastie1 @Know_HG from @long_covid:

medrxiv.org/content/10.110… 5/

A huge majority of providers (and #LongCOVID clinics!) are requiring lab-confirmation of COVID in order to provide patients access to care.

This is worsening the condition of patients.

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This is a reminder that the PCR false negative rate *starts* at 20%, and hits 66% by day 21 from onset (acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/m2…).

Requiring lab confirmation in order to give #LongCOVID patients care *needs to stop*.

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“#LongCovid patients who self-managed at home were 75% less likely to receive laboratory confirmation.”

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militaryhealth.bmj.com/content/jramc/…