While few of us want to think about COVID again, this research suggests it may be stealing more from us than just energy and daily function. The Long COVID tendency may be due to it stealing from our immune defenses, creating openings for other new infections to break in or past latent infections to wake up and rob us of our health even further. So many of us have suspected this, wondering why we seem to be getting sick more often than before having COVID. This refrain comes from both those who had COVID and those who received the preventive mRNA injection. This research supports what we have seen in our patients over the past few years with a few additional findings.
First, we should recognize that our immune system is called a system for a reason. We don’t have a thousand different immune departments each responsible for individual infections whether viral, bacterial, or parasitic. We have an integrated system in which the different branches of the system still work together as one to combat any invading infection. This possible effect of COVID shouldn’t be a surprise, logically. When we look at years of past discoveries, we usually see one infection and its immune response affecting immune responses to other infections. HIV’s ability to shut down the entire system is the most striking example, but it’s not the only one.
With the SARS CoV2 virus which lies behind the turmoil since 2020, it appears that several downstream effects on the immune system open the door for other viruses and some bacteria to get the upper hand on their immune prison guards and perimeter defenders. Many suspect that this coronavirus has contributed the 10-fold increase in many infections reported by 44 countries. While a variety of explanations such as an overwhelmed public health system or other societal changes have been hypothesized, some element of immune dysfunction caused by the virus is evident.
How can one infection make us more susceptible to another infection from our past or future exposure? While most of us think that the regular pattern is having an infection and then killing it off 100%, without any residual microbe in us afterwards, in reality many bacteria, viruses, and parasites simply go dormant in our bodies after the initial infection. The herpes family of viruses are the most well-known examples with fever blisters recurring for lifetimes, shingles waking up decades after childhood chicken pox, and CMV (cytomegalovirus) waking up after organ transplants. This article mentions reactivation of EBV as well as many others.
In this research several bacteria are also noted to be more prevalent post COVID infection. This includes Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Klebsiella, Hemophilus, Moraxella, tuberculosis, and others. These are mostly in the respiratory tract and can include both reactivations and enhanced susceptibility to new exposures.
The article notes that direct causation and mechanisms linking the SARS-CoV2 virus are still murky at best, but the associations are undeniable. Some associations even go both ways in that chronic conditions like Lyme disease may be a risk factor for more severe COVID as referenced in the linked article. Many mechanisms have been proposed in the paper and include altered immune function, latent virus reactivation in the body, autoimmune pathways, immunosuppression, disruption of mucosal barrier function, and ongoing inflammation.
As we care for patients complaining of increased rates and severities of infections after the virus or its mRNA therapy, we look for most of these infections if the symptoms fit. In order to help these patients restore a healthier, more abundant life, we have to not only help the immune system return to normal function but enable the body to fight back these other infections as well. We appreciate the researchers behind this article for bringing this issue to light and hopefully spurring more research into this post-COVID state of heightened infection risk.
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Original Article:
Timothy J Henrich, Christopher P Montgomery, Joerg Graf, Nahed Ismail, Sindhu Mohandas, Mehul S Suthar, Hassan Brim, John M Coffin, Aayush Pagaria, Jeisac Guzmán Rivera, Urmila Vudali, Paul Keim, Guangming Zhong, Rebecca McGrath, Belinda Edwards, Adolfo García-Sastre, Maria Laura Gennaro. The role of co-infection in the pathogenesis of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection and development of post-acute sequelae: A perspective. eLife, 2025; 14 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.106308
Thanks to Science Daily:
Rutgers University. “Researchers identify viral suspects that could be fueling long COVID.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 December 2025. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/12/251214100911.htm>.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
Colson Potter writes copious fiction and nonfiction, including a weekly Proverbs post and his blog at Creational Story.
