Some COVID-19 patients struggle with debilitating symptoms long after the disease has passed.

These COVID "long-haulers" could help scientists understand post-viral syndromes in general — if enough resources are brought to bear.

Even patients who recover from everyday viruses like cold or flu can later experience fatigue, pain, dizziness, or difficulty sleeping, thinking and concentrating.

Like myalgic encephalomyelitis, better known as chronic fatigue syndrome, this post-viral syndrome is not well studied.

Dr. Haider Warraich of Harvard Medical School says that omission hinders efforts to grapple with long COVID.

"We have no way to compare how patients with COVID-19 are doing compared with what you'd expect with any other type of viral organism," Warraich said. 

Warraich says the sheer number of long COVID patients could drive more research in the field but added scientists also must do control studies of other post-viral syndromes for comparison. 

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