I'm sure you mean well are are just trying to help, but please be very very careful when repeating claims like this. You could also make it clear and indicate what the articles actually assert as fact (versus just reporting data) to avoid confusing the lay public. The differences between what we know, what we suspect, what we think is likely, etc are nuanced and subject to being misunderstood.

What are the numbers on how often people are having those effects?

In a University of Washington longitudinal study, 32.7% of participants had persistent long-term side effects, and around 9% had moderate to severe long-term side effects.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...

Really don't know why some people are so determined to deny that COVID is a serious disease with a decent incidence rate of serious side effects. 10% of the population getting moderate to serious side effects from a single source within a year is a lot, and it sucks if you're that 10%! And another 20% get minor side effects on top of that. And it isn't just "the old" or anything like that, those side effects cut across the whole population, young and old.

I guess it's just the next iteration of the old "it's no worse than the flu" denialism. But a single bout of the flu doesn't leave 10% of the population with serious long-term side effects.

That study wasn't controlled. The most common reported symptom was fatigue. Many people who have never been infected also report fatigue symptoms. We'll need more research to reliably quantify how many patients experience long term symptoms.

It looks like they did have a control group, although it was fairly small with only 21 people.

I honestly hadn’t seen any hard numbers and was hoping to become more informed on the matter. That study looks decent, thank you for sharing it.

I think the study mentioned that this is largest and longest study about long-term effects, which I find a bit disappointing given the massive impact of the pandemic. The control group was quite small with only 21 people.

Anyways, I have adjusted my priors a bit. I’m not some sort of rabid denier :). But I am a bit wary of people arguing for very strict measures. The vaccine exists and is widely available (in the US). We won’t have a more powerful tool than that anytime soon. We need to start moving on with our lives. Not recklessly, but it needs to happen. Thankfully, the numbers seem to be getting better and better. Hopefully the trend continues.

It wouldn't be 10% of the population, though, right? It would only be 10% of the people who caught a case of the flu bad enough to be hospitalized or outpatient-treated?

Hmmm, I couldn’t find how exactly the study population was selected. Where did you see that?

it's 30%/10% of all cases, including weak/asymptomatic.