You are not wrong. Yes, scientific studies speak of some subset of patients experiencing symptoms weeks or months (but not necessarily longer) after COVID. Howe

You are not wrong. Yes, scientific studies speak of some subset of patients experiencing symptoms weeks or months (but not necessarily longer) after COVID. However, the actual studies emphasize that severity of long-term symptoms strongly correlates with severity of illness. That means that young people are at very low risk (not zero, of course, but as low as with many other common illnesses). When the media has taken these research findings up, however, they typically leave out all the nuance, because that way it sounds like more dramatic, attention-catching news. Also, last year some newspapers irresponsibly allowed some people to share their claims that they were dealing with tough long-term COVID symptoms even when they had never even tested positive for the disease in the first place. It was no different than giving a megaphone to the people who, before COVID, experienced some distress and, without any actual medical verification, were sure they were cases of "chronic Lyme disease". Health officials in several countries have plainly fudged the truth or left out details when speaking to the public, for what they see as the greater good of maintaining restrictions for long enough to reach their public-health goals. One naturally suspects that they found the panic about long COVID useful for this.