If one thinks “long COVID” is imaginary, one can read these facts as confirmation of placebo effects or mass sociogenic illness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_psychogenic_illness
Or, if one thinks it’s plausible, each can be read the other way, for instance:
>> long-term COVID symptoms are much more prevalent among women, adults under 65, Hispanics and Latinos, and non–college graduates than among other demographic groups
OK, so groups least likely to choose to isolate, or be able to isolate (because they have to work).
>> Second, COVID "long haulers" cite specific physical and cognitive impairments commonly associated with the condition in media and medical reporting.
Put another way, reporting and media sound like what people cite.
>> Third, the share of working-age adults reporting serious difficulty remembering, concentrating, or making decisions has risen steadily since the start of the pandemic.
Condition attributed to a disease known to be experienced by a steadily increasing population share, steadily increases share reporting — confirmed!
>> Fourth, growing shares of women and of non–college graduates report simultaneously (i) being out of the labor force due to disability and (ii) experiencing these cognitive difficulties.
So these go together, and see #1 — everything is as expected.
Remarkable how simultaneously contradictory all four interpretations can be, almost as if crafted to be so.