Tracking the SARS-CoV-2 variants associated with long-COVID in the United States using infodemiology

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic caused profound socioeconomic disruption in addition to claiming millions of lives worldwide. Beyond the infection-related mortality, a chronic and morbid condition known as “Long-COVID” is now getting increasing attention. Scholars and clinicians around the world are still trying to ascertain which COVID-19 variants could be linked with long-COVID mostly from clinic or healthcare facility-based studies. MethodsWe conducted a nationwide assessment in the U.S. using an infodemiological analysis to explore COVID-19 variants potentially linked with long-COVID. Long-COVID search-related data were collected from Google Trends from January 1st, 2020 to January 10th, 2023 (the peak phase of the pandemic in the U.S.). Variants prevalent in this period were analyzed in relation to the searches on long-COVID. ResultsA total of 2.2 million x 107 online searches for long-COVID were observed during the analytic period. The highest average searches recorded were during the Omicron variant surge followed by the surge of the Alpha variant. Given these findings and reports from clinical studies, Delta or original/wild variants are most likely associated with the occurrence of long-COVID symptoms among the U.S population. ConclusionsDelta or original wild variants may have the highest tendency to cause long-COVID symptoms in the general public. Additional population-based surveillance studies are needed to validate infodemiology methods on Long-COVID prevalence and occurrence.