Long Covid in Your Gut?

A spoiler alert: this is just a diversion.

A slew of headlines about the new Penn University study suggesting that “traces of SARS-CoV-2 virus are lingering in the guts of those with Long Covid symptoms” for months after the active disease: “What causes long COVID? The answer might be in your gut” (National Geographic, 2023.10.18), “Long Covid Study Links Lingering Virus With Bowel-to-Brain Havoc” (Bloomberg, 2023.10.17), and so on.

This article, “Scientists at UPenn believe they've discovered the REAL cause of long Covid” (Daily Mail, 2023.10.17)) succinctly recaps the study findings so:

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found patients with the lingering condition have two things in common. They have remnants of the virus in their gut and lower levels of serotonin.

Somehow, when I read the study itself, it only says this:

Viral RNA was indeed detected in the stool of a subset of individuals with PASC (Figure 4W), highlighting a possible connection between the presence of viral components in the gastrointestinal tract and the persistence of long-term symptoms in certain individuals.

In other words, most of the Long Covid sufferers did not have any discernible viral RNA in their stool. What’s the subset exactly? This is the only data visualization presented by the study:

Fig. 4 (W) Viral RNA was indeed detected in the stool of a subset of individuals with PASC

From what we can discern from the above graph, the vast majority of individuals with Covid-19 PASC (post-acute sequelae of Covid-19) don’t have any greater “viral load” than the non-PASC. And those that do have some viral RNA may be having it from an ongoing reinfection or some other viral infection? The study is mum on this eventuality.

As for the serotonin deficiency, it’s a known fact that an ongoing inflammation may cause it, among other possibilities. E.g., “The Brain on Fire: Inflammation and Depression”:

One mechanism as to how an unregulated immune system may contribute to depression is quite well understood. Cytokines activate an enzyme, indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), which degrades serotonin resulting in low levels of the neurotransmitter. IDO also degrades the precursor to serotonin, tryptophan. Decreased levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin are likely the contributing factor to the development of depressive symptoms. The inflammatory process's contribution to the constant destruction of serotonin decreases the chances of recovery.

So much for the new breakthrough in the Long Covid investigation by the $cience.

Also, why didn’t the study look for the S spike proteins, only for some unspecific “viral load” indicator via the amplification of RNA fragments in the stool? Look over there, don’t look here? Why not? Because we already know the answer, but that answer is raising inconvenient questions, as I have expounded in my post from Sep. 10, 20023, “Long Covid [Vax] Conditions”.

“They are full of it.” Right…