By the time many children with lingering symptoms of COVID-19 reach Lael Yonker’s pediatric pulmonology clinic, they have likely been told those problems are “just a cold.”

“When kids come to me, they’re very frustrated. They often will cry just because I’m listening to them and I’m not questioning whether or not they have long COVID,” Yonker, MD, associate professor of pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said. “I’m trying to address their symptoms.”

Often, family members bring up the possibility of long COVID, she said. That’s because when caregivers relay the symptoms of poor appetite and sleepiness, most pediatricians do not think the chronic condition could be a possible diagnosis, she said.

Until now, only small studies had been published on characterizations of

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