It’s apples and oranges. Two very different styles

Pasta!

Noodles: ramen, soba, udon, egg…

Pasta: macaroni, ziti, penne, spaghetti …

There’s a knob on your bread

Well this looks like my next project

Certain types of Long COVID tend to be more prevalent in healthy people.

Otherwise, there is no increase in prevalence among overweight people, but a trend toward athletic people and people who did not, or could not take time off to recover from COVID before going back into an active life or exercise regimen.

The dysautonomia type of long COVID (which encompasses, chest pain, palpitations, shortness of breath, and inability to exercise) tends to be more profound in athletic people who had previously conditioning themselves to have better cardiovascular fitness (and therefore had lower resting heart rates, and less rise of heart rate during exercise).

There is a relatively close association with mental health concerns like depression and anxiety with Long COVID - particularly the neurologic type of Long COVID as well as the Dysautonomia type (dysautonomia being an issue of the autonomic nervous system)

So aside from underlying psychologic comorbidities, it seems to be more prevalent in healthy active individuals.

The nucleocapsid Ab is different from the spike protein Ab, so those will distinguish infection from vaccination. The T cell test is not widely available.... so getting the test isn't likely to convince clinicians one way or another.

palpitations alone, in absence of other symptoms, is probably just palpitations. you'd rule out a more abnormal arrhythmia with a holter, and then carry on with live.

Long COVID as certainly a constellation of symptoms in a syndrome, and it falls into various constellations - neurologic, dysautonomia, chronic fatigue, etc. There is no "test" to diagnose it... similar to fibromyalgia, and several rheumatic diseases...

... such is the nature of medicine. Physicians take a medical history and run confirmatory tests sometimes. 90% of the diagnoses is made in the mind of the physician based on the story you tell, and your physical exam findings

diagnosing Long COVID is really no more challenging than diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis most of the time

(I actually find it odd that most people don't realize that what doctors do is use their mind to make a diagnosis on pattern recognition... (that 5 different kinds of arthritis look wildly different to them)... and they use tests to either narrow, confirm, or rule out)

There are tests to see if you had previous infection, nucleocapsid Ab, or T cell assay... it is unclear how long these test remain positive / useful after infection.

You'd need to go to a doctor that is familiar with Long COVID, and get an evaluation. There are plenty of well known reasons to get these symptoms (particularly palpitations) and these need to be ruled out.

The near-universal feature of Long COVID symptoms is that they have no objective physical finding (similar to fibromyalgia and CFS), and they come in patterns and constellations. These are all syndromes - there are common or well known features, but there are subtle patterns, and associations/connections.

So you'd need to see a doctor that has become familiar with Long COVID... after ruling out the more dangerous or more well-described reasons for palpitations, they would ask about other symptoms that you are aren't thinking about. If the constellation appears... that's what it might be.

The government is by no means the crucial actor in this. This work is being done entirely by Academic Medical Institutions around the world.... the university medical centers and the medical schools around the world.... Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Karolinska Institute, even University of Alabama and the lesser known medical schools. The article in the OP is from Peking University, School of Public Health.

The governments only role in this is registering the clinical trials for official purposes. As far as funding, write to your legislator. The universities have to secure their own funding, and sometimes it does come from the government, and often it doesnt.

Here's the list of 309 ongoing clinical trials that are registered with the US government for regulatory purposes.... not to mention the hundreds of other studies that are being done to try to determine the causes of Long COVID (studies not involving the trial of treatments but the biochemical causes)

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?cond=Long+COVID&term=&cntry=&state=&city=&dist=

Actually there are plenty of medical scientists trying to sort it out... so no it hasnt been forgotten and ignored.

One point worth mentioning though. Long COVID, per se, is more of the emergence of symptoms after recovery, persistent and NEW symptoms, and that often occurs around 3 months.

Long COVID symptoms (brain fog, fatigue, breathlessness, palpitations, post exertional malaise) that occur at the end of "recovery" are still COVID symptoms. The virus doesnt suddenly get up and walk out of you at the 10th day. Having these symptoms at the end of the acute illness requires lifestyle and exercise modifications as instructed by your Primary Doctor - rest, modification of exercise regimen, etc. (e.g. people are instructed to avoid exercise for 2 weeks, and then start with short walks) Not doing so can lead to Long COVID, or Long COVID can just develop (seems to happen both ways)