I haven't really followed this too closely.

When I caught covid the most standout thing to me was the effect it had on me mentally. On day 3 or 4 I attempted to work from home as I was physically feeling almost completely recovered. I was absolutely shocked the degree to which my thinking was affected: I could not hold my train of thought together, my short term memory was hopeless and I ended up taking another couple of days off because my work output was atrocious.

After 2 weeks I was pretty much back to normal, and I can't imagine how crappy it would be to try and live with that if the condition persisted. I assume that this is what long covid feels like?

I have to wonder though, do we know for sure that this stuff that is getting called "long covid" is strictly covid related?

There's a whole world of poorly defined conditions that could be exacerbated by a covid infection, or get blamed on a covid infection: chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, depression, general physical unwellness and lack of energy.

Sometimes it feels like covid is a great big bogeyman and people feel like shit and just don't know what else to blame it on? Am I making sense or is the science pretty clear cut here?