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Could tiny blood clots cause long COVID’s puzzling symptoms?

Scientists debate evidence for a micro-clot hypothesis that has some people pursuing potentially risky treatments.
  1. Cassandra Willyard

    1. Cassandra Willyard is a science journalist in Madison, Wisconsin.

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Illustration that shows two people in a boat going down a blood vessel containing coronavirus and blood clots.

Illustration by David Parkins

When Lara Hawthorne, an illustrator in Bristol, UK, began developing strange symptoms after having COVID-19, she hoped that they weren’t due to the virus. Her initial illness had been mild. “I’ve been triple vaccinated. I felt quite protected,” she says. But months later, she was still sick with a variety of often debilitating symptoms: earaches, tinnitus, congestion, headaches, vertigo, heart palpitations, muscle pain and more. On some days, Hawthorne felt so weak that she could not get out of bed. When she finally saw her physician, the diagnosis was what she had been dreading: long COVID.

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Nature 608, 662-664 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02286-7

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