That is one of the main things this article is actually about. "The fact that the symptoms occurred at a significantly higher rate in those recovering from COV

That is one of the main things this article is actually about. "The fact that the symptoms occurred at a significantly higher rate in those recovering from COVID-19 vs influenza is important, as it implies that the cause of the symptoms is directly linked to SARS-CoV-2 infection, rather than a generic response to a viral infection." To be honest though does it really matter? The fact is hundreds of millions of people have caught this disease and a large proportion of those have long term symptoms. Whether or not this is unique to Covid or just more common with Covid is really beside the point. It's still a major health care issue that we need to research and understand, and allow for in our planning to manage the impact. We don't have tens of millions of people with long term health impact from influenza, but we do from Covid.