Scientists from Harvard Medical School are looking into whether long COVID is caused by pockets of COVID-19 living in the gut. It is currently the strongest lead scientists have as to why long COVID symptoms are caused.
The half-life of the spike protein in the body is pretty short, so the continued existence of the virus beyond its half-life has led scientists to investigate a phenomenon they call “viral persistence”.
The number of patients with long COVID is continuing to grow which can increase the burden on the patients and health service as well.