(NewsNation) — Some health professionals are questioning whether long COVID symptoms are still a major threat.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Marty Makary, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, argues long COVID has been exaggerated “to scare low-risk Americans as our government gives more than $1 billion to a long Covid medical-industrial complex.”
Dr. Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco, says there’s merit to the cited studies by Makary. In one study, COVID patients reported better long-term outcomes than patients with other respiratory infections.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims 20% of COVID infections can result in long COVID, but a U.K. study found only 3% had symptoms lasting longer than 12 weeks.
“I think it has (been exaggerated) by the CDC, it hasn’t by all parties,” Gandhi said. “But 20% … that’s absolutely not accurate. No other study has shown that.”
Watch her interview on “Rush Hour” above.