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Todd Davenport on The Impacts of Long COVID

Todd Davenport/LinkedIn

Jan 24, 2026, 15:02

Todd Davenport on The Impacts of Long COVID

Todd Davenport, Professor and Chair, Department of Physical Therapy, University of the Pacific, shared on LinkedIn:

”Our latest manuscript, “ME/CFS and Long COVID Demonstrate Similar Bioenergetic Impairment and Recovery Failure on Two‑Day Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing,” is now posted as a preprint.

Using two‑day cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET), we compared physiologic responses in people living with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), Long COVID, and matched non‑disabled controls, stratifying our analysis by sex.

Here’s what we learned:

Both ME/CFS and Long COVID show similar failure to recover after exertion
Largest impairments occur at the ventilatory anaerobic threshold, suggesting similar aerobic system impairment
Females exhibited more pronounced post‑exertional abnormalities than males
No meaningful differences were observed between ME/CFS and Long COVID on two-day CPET, suggesting they share a bioenergetic pathophysiology
Severe functional impairment was common in both patient groups and was not explained by effort preference, deconditioning, ventilation, or hemodynamics

These results reinforce post‑exertional malaise (PEM) is a measurable physiological phenomenon.

They underscore the value of two‑day CPET to:
– Differentiate PEM from normal recovery using objective measures
– Inform disability evaluations in people who can and choose to have a CPET
– Improve precision in rehabilitation and treatment trials

I’m grateful to my co‑authors and to the patients.

Their generous engagement continues to advance our understanding of these terribly disabling yet largely ignored chronic conditions.”

Read the full article here.

Article: ME/CFS and Long COVID Demonstrate Similar Bioenergetic Impairment and Recovery Failure on Two-Day Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing

Authors: Todd Davenport, Staci Stevens, Jared Stevens, Mark Van Ness

Todd Davenport on The Impacts of Long COVID