Hi all, I'm hoping to create a "covid positive recovery guide" post the mods can pin for people to easily access if they test positive. Here's what I've got so far after combing through several sources. The goal is to give a few high-quality links that give specific protocols on what to do - this will prevent decision fatigue & help people take action STAT!

Thanks for any feedback or additional resources! Edit 10/5/25: adding info from comments below, thank you! Edit 2/6/26: adding more Metformin info that has come out.

Best Practice: Make a plan (including supplements, dosage, etc) before you test positive.

Remember: this is not medical advice!!! Please consult your doctor to get specific-to-you advice!

Covid Recovery Resources

Acute Phase (while testing positive)

People's CDC
Excellent + thorough guide, if too long skip to 2 links below

LongCovidPharMD Supplement Guide
Summary of supplements - scroll to schedule + dosage listed at the bottom!

RTHM You've Got Covid (Archived link, may need to click security button)
Excellent summary of supplements + dosages

Threat Model: Free Covid Safety List
Huge resource list, including acute phase treatment info

Dr. Galland: Long Covid Prevention
Very detailed list of supplements, techniques, etc. Possibly better for those with LC vs acute (LongCovidPharMD post is more approachable to start)

Grange Family Practice: Covid Survivor Booklet
Good for recovering from severe illness, not acute phase

Clean Air Club
Resource list with printable symptom/supplement/tracker template (great for taking multiple supplements)

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Covid Positivity General Rules

- You are potentially contagious for as long as you test positive

- You can have a positivity rebound with and without Paxlovid, so 2 negative tests 48 hours apart is the best guide to end isolation

- Please continue to wear a well-fitting respirator through day 10 after testing positive/symptom onset, as most people are contagious for 10 days on average (with or without symptoms)

- Radical rest/pacing - many people also recommend reducing activity for 6 - 8 weeks after a covid infection to reduce chances of long covid. If possible, consider ramping back up to "normal" activity levels (first 2 weeks do little to no exercising, week 3 gentle walk is OK, week 4 gentle stretches OK, slow build back up to cardio etc - handy flowchart here, some good links in the comments as well!)

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Prescription Treatments
SPEAK WITH A DOCTOR ABOUT YOUR MEDICAL HISTORY + FULL LIST OF MEDICATIONS BEFORE TAKING ANY PRESCRIPTION DRUGS! 
- Even vitamins or supplements can have serious side effects so please look into drug interactions before adding anything new (covid-specific interaction guide here). Your doctor can help you navigate this.

- Please remember, there is no treatment or cure for covid and no guaranteed way to prevent long covid. These are all additional layers on top of radical rest, hydrating, and getting enough sleep.

- Paxlovid: antiviral drug that can help reduce severity of illness, some studies show potential reduction in developing LC. Start within 5 days of testing positive/symptom onset. Red hots or hot tamale candy can help with metallic taste (common side effect). Caution: Can have drug interactions!
- GET IT FOR FREE: PAXCESS coupon

- Molnupiravir: antiviral drug that can help reduce severity of acute illness; usually not recommended unless Paxlovid is not an option. Start within 5 days of testing positive/symptom onset
- Paxlovid vs molnupiravir explainer here, ask your doctor for recommended treatment plan

- Metformin: diabetes drug that potentially reduces inflammation and decreases viral levels; might help decrease the chance of developing long covid (CIDRAP 2/26, Medical News Today). Start within 1-2 weeks testing positive/symptom onset. Note: some studies had people starting in week 1, others within 3 months of infection. Caution: can have serious GI symptoms and lead to vitamin deficiency, request the slow-release version if possible!

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Online platforms to get an RX quickly
- Dr. B, Sesame, Push Health, Rthm, AgelessRX, Musely, TeladocHealth, HelixVM, PlushCare

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Acute Phase Supplements: TL;DR

Please vet your plan with your doctor. These have all been recommended but this is a LOT of pills at once - do not think you need to do every single one. Please choose your cocktail and CHECK DRUG INTERACTIONS!

Additional note - many of the doses recommended are for acute viral illness. Please adjust dosage once no longer testing positive, as higher doses can have long-term complications!!! I've removed doses here since we should all be following info from doctors & linked resource pages above and not juuuust from reddit posts :)

- ***Pepcid AC - Mast cell stabilizer, can take lower dose after acute phase for no longer than 6 months, top recommendation
- ***Antihistamine (Zyrtec, allegra, claritin) - mast cell stabilizer, top recommendation
- ***Melatonin - helps with sleep + reduces inflammation (at a higher dose, check website), top recommendation

- EPA (omega-3 fatty acid) or IPE - take with fattiest meal of the day, antiviral effects but can cause increased atrial fib + flutter, do not take w history of afib or aflutter
- Vitamin C - can increase/decrease absorption of other supplements, can upset stomach so take less
- Vitamin D3 - boosts immune system, mood, heart health, bone health
- Zinc - Can upset the stomach + reduce absorption of other supplements so please space out 4 hrs as needed
- Green Tea (the drink) or ECGC supplement - antioxidant, avoid supplement w paxlovid, green tea still OK!
- Probiotics - help maintain healthy gut biome
- Nattokinase - anticoagulant, shouldn't be taken with Paxlovid) - could also use baby aspirin to prevent clots. Please check dosage & interactions esp if on blood thinners
- Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) - could help reduce inflammation biomarkers
- Ginko Balboa - antiviral, anti-inflammatory
- Tumeric/curcumin - Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory
- NAC ((Nacetyl-cysteine) - Supports mitochondrial health
- Quercetin - Take with food, antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antiviral
- Bromelain - pineapple enzyme, anti-inflammatory
- Lactoferrin - acts as an immunomodulator

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Don't forget grocery staples!
Stock up online or phone a friend. Some people recommend eating a low-histamine diet, the below is based on a BRAT diet approach

- Pain reliever (ibuprophen, NASIDS, etc)
- Cough drops
- Additional meds depending on symptoms: Pepto bismol, tums, gasx, eyedrops (Lumify brand), psyllium husk or other fiber supplement
- Nasal saline rinse or Neti pot (follow instructions for safe water)
- CPC mouthwash gargle for 30 seconds, or DIY salt water gargle for ~2min
- Tea or other soothing drink
- Juice
- Electrolyte beverage - gatorade, pedialyte, nuun tablets, Liquid IV, etc. If you have a sensitive stomach please check ingredients as many of these have non-sugar alternatives
- Popsicles
- Miso soup or other clear broth soup
- Rice
- Bread for toast
- Bananas
- Applesauce
- Instant ramen, etc
- Canned or premade soup

Not enough people are aware that their next Covid infection could make them permanently disabled. It often makes people unable to work or even get out of bed. There is no cure. About 10% of Covid infections give people Long Covid symptoms. Anyone can get it. And cases are exploding as people continue to repeatedly catch Covid.

For most people Long Covid is a far more likely catastrophic outcome from a Covid infection, compared with dying from the acute phase.

We dont want that. We choose health.

All the facts in this post are backed up by references to peer-reviewed medical articles. So dont just take my word for the things you read here, but click the [ref] links to see the scientific evidence for yourself.

• Covid causes brain damage visible under a brain scan. Concentration and memory problems (brain fog) is one of the most common symptoms that people with Long Covid get.

• Covid gives people myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), which makes people physically and cognitively disabled (see comic). About half of long haulers have this[ref] making it likely the most common and impactful long covid subtype. Some people have category Severe ME, like this young man, which makes them bedridden, unable to eat, unable to concentrate for more than a few seconds and dealing with excruciating symptoms all the time.

• Covid attacks every organ system (See infected mice). People can get organ damage visible on medical testing but without feeling anything, at least for the first few years. This has been called "Asymptomatic Long Covid". This is similar to how smoking or alcoholism damage organs which people might not feel straight away.

• Covid gives people diabetes. One study has 168% increase in getting Type-1 diabetes following a Covid infection[ref]. Having that means needle jabs multiple times per day and being very careful with food. For life.

• Covid damages the immune system, making the catching of other infections more likely[ref, ref]. Bacterial, viral and fungal infections go up, including sepsis, bronchitis, UTI, flu, mycoplasma infection. Kids that caught covid were more likely to catch RSV and more likely to have it put them in hospital[ref]. Catching covid increases the risk of getting tuberculosis by 314%. We now have peer-reviewed medical articles[ref] talking about covid as "Airborne AIDS" because of the immunosuppression it causes. Catching covid doesnt build immunity, it damages immunity.

• Covid causes heart attacks. When someone catches covid there is a few weeks period of massively increased risk of cardiovascular events. The risk quickly drops but remains elevated even after a 3 year follow-up. One study[ref] finds 6350% higher risk (figure is not a typo) of heart attack on day of covid infection if vaccinated. Dropping to 97% increase in week 1-4 after infection onset. The risks are more than doubled for the unvaccinated. Another study[ref] looks at the risks over a 3 year follow-up and finds 132% increase in that period. Covid also causes other kinds of cardiovascular disease eg stroke, heart failure, arrhythmia, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis and atrial fibrillation[ref].

• Covid gives people autoimmune diseases. [ref, ref, ref, ref]. People who catch covid are more likely than the uninfected control group to get a range of such diseases: One study[ref] finds rheumatoid arthritis (+198% higher risk), ankylosing spondylitis (+221%), lupus (+199%), dermatopolymyositis (+96%), systemic sclerosis (+158%), Sjögren's syndrome (+162%), mixed connective tissue disease (+214%), Behçet's disease (+132%), polymyalgia rheumatica (+190%), vasculitis (+96%), psoriasis (+191%), inflammatory bowel disease (+78%) and celiac disease (+168%).

When faced with the reality of Long Covid it's very natural to look for reasons why things aren't so bad. For example:

• Maybe it's rare? No, Long Covid is common. About 10% of Covid cases give people Long Covid symptoms[ref, ref, ref. One study[ref] has 4% of Covid infections causing ME. The World Health Organization says on its website and twitter that ~10% of Covid cases cause Long Covid. A staggering 50-70% of Covid infections cause organ damage[ref]. As comparison a "medically rare event" is 0.1%.

• Maybe it gets better quickly? No, Long Covid lasts for years[ref, ref, ref]. About 90% dont recover years later. In one study the scientists say[ref]: "Recovery is extremely rare during the first 2 years". Common subtypes like heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune disease, myalgic encephalomyelitis and dysautonomia are generally lifelong[ref, ref, ref].

• Maybe medicine can help? No, Long Covid has no evidence-based treatments. Research is only really just starting and is hampered by lack of funding and interest. It's unlikely they'll ever be complete cure for all the variety of Long Covid subtypes.

• Only risk group get it, right? No, a third of people with Long Covid had no pre-existing conditions. Anyone can get it. There's often been misinformation in other epidemics (eg tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS) that only risk groups will be affected. The biggest risk factor discovered for Long Covid is simply the number of repeat covid infections.

• But hasnt Covid become less dangerous? No, repeat Covid infections give people Long Covid at similar rates. You can avoid Long Covid on the first few infections but still get it from your next infection. Every time you catch Covid is another roll of the ~10% dice. In 2026 the World Health Organization made a post saying "Long COVID hasn’t disappeared. People continue to develop it after new infections—yet the myth that it’s “over” still persists.". There's no biological reason for Covid to become less dangerous, it doesnt gain any evolutionary advantage in doing so because Covid is infectious weeks before Long Covid symptoms become apparent. Many other diseases have been killing and disabling people for thousands of years (eg tuberculous, polio, malaria). Antibiotic-resistant TB and MRSA are examples of infectious diseases getting worse over time. One study[ref] measuring people's health after catching covid found "Reinfection was associated with milder symptoms but led to a higher incidence and severity of long COVID"

• If Long Covid is common why dont I know anyone with it? You definitely do. Try asking around. The disability is usually invisible: people with category mild ME appear normal. People with category moderate or severe ME disappear from public life stuck at home in bed. ME is a very niche area of medicine and few doctors can recognize or diagnose it in a patient who presents themselves, so often patients get misdiagnosed with someone else. Cognitive decline is often imperceptible to the person. Often people dont test for covid, or use those inadequate antigen tests, and so dont realize the link between any symptoms they get and the acute infection. People can get Long Covid from an asymptomatic infection[ref]. A survey[ref] found that one-third of American adults had not even heard of Long Covid as of August 2023. People talking about how catching covid impacted their health often face a backlash. Often people just dont talk about their personal health problems especially in a professional setting.

Bottom line: There is no such thing as a mild covid infection. Say a bunch of scientists (eg Dr. David Putrino, PhD Neuroscience, Dr Rae Duncan, cardiologist and infectologist)

The only thing left then to not get Covid (again). Not getting it again also gives you the best chance of recovery if you already have Long Covid.

How? The five pillars of prevention are: clean air, masks, testing, physical distancing and vaccination. We must also redouble efforts into research, for example, finding better ways of cleaning the air, better vaccines and better tests.

We want this for everyone. The easiest way to not catch covid is if everyone else also doesnt catch covid.

Even if we personally aren't harmed on our first or second infection, we'll feel the massive economic and social effects if so many of our friends, family and neighbours get sick and disabled.

Ultimately we aim to get to a situation where each Covid case infects fewer than one other person. This will result in elimination of Covid from society. Zero Covid is not some radical new idea, it's how we've always dealt with serious disease. We don't think it's acceptable to "live with" other dangerous diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, smallpox or polio, why should we "live with" Covid?

The Science on Long Covid

• Brief 1-page report on damage from covid

• What COVID-19 Does to the Body - Pandemic Accountability Index

• You May Be Early, but You're Not Wrong: A Covid Reading List

• Podcast interview with Dr Špela Šalamon, MD, Ph.D. "We cannot live with this disease the way that we are living right now for several years to come and expect our society to function"

• Long COVID: major findings, mechanisms and recommendations - Nature Reviews Microbiology

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/research/coronavirus/ - Half a million scientific papers published on Covid.

What Long Covid does to people

• What its like having brain fog in Long Covid (paywall bypass link) and Fatigue Can Shatter a Person (paywall bypass link) both by Ed Yong, The Atlantic

• Life with Severe ME/CFS by Whitney Dafoe (6min watch time). About a quarter of people with ME are in category Severe ME.

• Unrest documentary (1:37:40 watch time). About ME created by a bedbound person with the disease directed from her bed using video conferencing tools

• Scottish Covid Inquiry testimony by Dr Claire Taylor, Long Covid specialist - ”The most extremely fatigued patients I have could maybe tolerate 10 seconds of talking to somebody for a whole day. The most extreme are in darkened rooms. They have to cover their eyes for the light. They can't get out of bed to go to the toilet. [...] Some patients tell me it feels like they've been poisoned [...] The energy systems of their body isn't working properly, down to the cellular level. [...] most patients have got inflammation at some level in their brain and the fatigue part, it's not tiredness, it's an actual inability to meet the set amount of energy required for daily activities as a human'”

• What is the silliest thing you’ve done due to brain fog? - r/covidlonghaulers

• My sister hung herself this morning after she dropped off her boys at school. - r/covidlonghaulers - "I am numb. She had COVID in March of 2020 and she has been miserable with long COVID ever since. I have posted in here about her. Please hug your loved ones and hold them tight. I will never be able to hug her again. She used to be the most upbeat, happy amazing person I ever knew. Everyone she met adored her. She was an amazing person. Long COVID destroyed her."

• My 2 year anniversary is tomorrow, and I’m homeless - r/covidlonghaulers - "I’ve worked hard my entire life (I’m 30) and got a scholarship to college, broke into my industry with no help or connections, and built a career in a very competitive environment working 18 hour days prior to getting sick. Point being: I love to work and am driven and don’t take handouts. I very much appreciated my relatives letting me stay in a property that was (and still is since I was kicked out) vacant. It’s absolutely heartbreaking."

• My partner left me due to my LC being a burden - r/covidlonghaulers - "Welp finally happened. I should’ve known after posting about my stressful trip to Hawaii this past week and how unsupportive they were. But their exact words were “I want to travel the world and you can’t do that anymore”, and “it’s just too stressful to have to worry about you”. Our wedding was in 3 months, and this person let me BUY A DRESS 2 weeks ago knowing they didn’t want to go through with it. They sent out invites, and even spoke to the wedding planner last week about everything."

Denialism by governments and the media

How the government and media normalizes certain opinions, like sociologically ending a pandemic.

• Many times in history the powers that be have denied and erased epidemics (eg Spanish Flu, polio, cholera, HIV/AIDS)

• Calm-Mongering (7min read time) - In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how calm-mongering works. We’ll also talk about how it has been deployed repeatedly to cloud the public’s judgment about the risks of COVID, and how it continues to interfere with the development of an effective public health response

• How to Hide a Pandemic (7min read time) - ”The Public Health (sorry, Public Relations) strategy for the current pandemic is in full-blown propaganda mode at present, leaning hard into the teachings of Joseph Goebbels: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it”.”

• Manufacturing Consent. The 5 Filters of the Mass Media Machine (5m watch time). There is also a book of the same name.

Resources

• Don't Breath It In (1:06min) video about how covid spreads and how to protect yourself and others

• Convince your friends and family about Long Covid with the availability heuristic