Long COVID: answers emerge on how many people get better

Something I never seem to hear explained: What IS long COVID. Is it damage to lungs, is it a change in the behavior of the immune system, is it something that happens in the cells? Where in the body is it hiding? Is this something we just don't know yet?

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?