text: Characterizing the COVID 19 illness experience to inform the study of post acute sequelae and recovery a qualitative study We aimed to characterize the variability in the illness experience and recovery process from COVID 19 We conducted in depth individual interviews with participants enrolled in the Long term Immunological Impact of Novel Coronavirus LIINC cohort study in San Francisco California from June through October of 2020 Participants were adults who had a previously confirmed positive SARV CoV 2 nucleic acid amplification test result had recovered or were recovering from acute infection and underwent serial evaluations at our clinical research center We purposefully sampled 24 English and Spanish speaking adults with asymptomatic mild and severe symptomatic infection including those who were hospitalized and those with HIV co infection Half of our sample 50 0 identified as Latinx Hispanic and most of the participants were men 62 5 We used thematic analysis to characterize the illness experience recovery process and mental health impact of experiencing COVID 19 and present clinical data for each participant Emergent themes were 1 across symptom profiles and severity experiencing COVID 19 was associated with psychological distress 2 among participants with symptomatic infection the illness experience was characterized by uncertainty in terms of managing symptoms and recovery and 3 despite wide ranging illness experiences participants shared many common characteristics including health information seeking behavior facilitated by access to medical care and uncertainty regarding the course of their illness and recovery COVID 19 was associated with elevated levels of psychological distress regardless of symptoms 