[CommieBobDole]

I think it's real, I just don't think it's a particular Covid-specific thing. Infections and the immune response to them cause cellular damage, and that damage is different for different people because of a lot of factors - random chance, genetic predisposition, etc. I think this has always been a thing, but it wasn't always as noticeable because this happened to people sporadically as people got 'a cold' or 'the flu' which could have been any number of viruses. Now millions and millions of people have been infected with a fairly nasty coronavirus and the effects of this damage are showing up in large numbers.

Anecdotally, I came down with probably-not-Covid a couple of months back (fit a lot of the symptoms, but never tested positive) and I've only recently gotten my normal energy levels back, and my sense of smell, which disappeared entirely for a few days, is still wonky.