>>13529805>Every statistic that the long covid boogeyman is real comes from self-reported surveys, often online anonymous ones.https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.25.449905v1.full.pdfThe recent COVID-19 pandemic is a treatment challenge in the acute infection stage
54 but the recognition of chronic COVID-19 symptoms termed post-acute sequelae SARS55 CoV-2 infection (PASC) may affect up to 30% of all infected individuals. The underlying
56 mechanism and source of this distinct immunologic condition three months or more after
57 initial infection remains elusive. Here, we investigated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 S1
58 protein in 46 individuals. We analyzed T-cell, B-cell, and monocytic subsets in both
59 severe COVID-19 patients and in patients with post-acute sequelae of COVID-19
60 (PASC). The levels of both intermediate (CD14+, CD16+) and non-classical monocyte
61 (CD14Lo, CD16+) were significantly elevated in PASC patients up to 15 months post62 acute infection compared to healthy controls (P=0.002 and P=0.01, respectively). A
63 statistically significant number of non-classical monocytes contained SARS-CoV-2 S1
64 protein in both severe (P=0.004) and PASC patients (P=0.02) out to 15 months post65 infection. Non-classical monocytes were sorted from PASC patients using flow
66 cytometric sorting and the SARS-CoV-2 S1 protein was confirmed by mass
67 spectrometry. Cells from 4 out of 11 severe COVID-19 patients and 1 out of 26 also
68 contained SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Non-classical monocytes are capable of causing
69 inflammation throughout the body in response to fractalkine/CX3CL1 and
70 RANTES/CCR5.
