How do you disambiguate "long Covid" from the very real fact that people are incredibly suggestible. My father-in-law was convinced he had long Covid. He talke

How do you disambiguate "long Covid" from the very real fact that people are incredibly suggestible. My father-in-law was convinced he had long Covid. He talked about it all the time. He was never diagnosed, but he had a cold near the beginning of the pandemic and he decided it was Covid. He claimed he could run up and down the steps at the park before getting Covid. Now, he claimed, he was always breathless. I exercise him and he'd be convinced exercise will do nothing because of his long Covid. Of course when he got tested he had no antibodies. But it's not just that. During the height of the pandemic, did you notice yourself, or notice in others, that people were always thinking Covid was coming on? Every little pain or weird breath and people became very worried. The brain is incredible at turning normal sensations into symptoms. We don't realize all the sensory input we're constantly discarding until we start becoming hyperaware. The incentives for the media to hype long Covid and for researchers to find long Covid is incredibly intense. Every shred of evidence will by hyped to the moon. Every other person you meet with a panic disorder or heart condition will have a story attributed to Covid. Ordinary people will have absolutely zero way to contextualize the true risk.