Answering Our Call to Care: Introduction to the Special Issue on Long Covid
Davenport, Todd E.
First paragraph (with line breaks added):
The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic largely has faded from the daily news, but it still plays a prominent role in our daily reality. In 2023, COVID-19 was the cause of death for 76,000 people—still averaging over 200 people per day—and remained among the Top 10 leading causes of mortality in the United States.1 COVID-19 infections seem almost ubiquitous now, as community-based mitigation efforts have waned and vaccine uptake in the population has remained low. Testing and reporting for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have become greatly diminished. Identifying cases, changes in clinical presentation based on variants, and potentially associated heath conditions is now much more difficult, because acute infections are substantially under-reported.
But beyond the direct consequences of acute infections, COVID-19 has led to the emergence of a quieter yet deeply impactful medical and public health challenge of our times—Long Covid. Perego,2 a social scientist, coined Long Covid in May 2020 based on her daily experience of wrestling with its deleterious effects. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, people living with Long Covid used this term on social media to share about their disabling signs and symptoms that were either a prolongation of the acute phase of illness or reappeared after short period of apparent recovery.3 Many of the earliest researchers in Long Covid were the patients themselves.
By turning a scholarly lens on their own experiences, patients created the first empirical descriptions of Long Covid. These included profound and disabling fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, shortness of breath, loss of taste and smell, poor digestion, new-onset allergies and chemical sensitivities, and a whole host of other debilitating signs and symptoms.4
Their early work challenged the easy narrative that outcomes of COVID-19 fit into a neat binary of “surviving” versus “not surviving.” Indeed, early scholarship by people living with Long Covid influenced the medical and scientific communities, which were largely focused on treating acute infections and mortality, to also consider the emergence of this new form of chronic disease. It is an important recent example of how patient-led movements can help shape the trajectory of medicine and public health if we choose to listen.
Link (Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy Journal) [Open Access]
Davenport, Todd E.
First paragraph (with line breaks added):
The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic largely has faded from the daily news, but it still plays a prominent role in our daily reality. In 2023, COVID-19 was the cause of death for 76,000 people—still averaging over 200 people per day—and remained among the Top 10 leading causes of mortality in the United States.1 COVID-19 infections seem almost ubiquitous now, as community-based mitigation efforts have waned and vaccine uptake in the population has remained low. Testing and reporting for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have become greatly diminished. Identifying cases, changes in clinical presentation based on variants, and potentially associated heath conditions is now much more difficult, because acute infections are substantially under-reported.
But beyond the direct consequences of acute infections, COVID-19 has led to the emergence of a quieter yet deeply impactful medical and public health challenge of our times—Long Covid. Perego,2 a social scientist, coined Long Covid in May 2020 based on her daily experience of wrestling with its deleterious effects. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, people living with Long Covid used this term on social media to share about their disabling signs and symptoms that were either a prolongation of the acute phase of illness or reappeared after short period of apparent recovery.3 Many of the earliest researchers in Long Covid were the patients themselves.
By turning a scholarly lens on their own experiences, patients created the first empirical descriptions of Long Covid. These included profound and disabling fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, shortness of breath, loss of taste and smell, poor digestion, new-onset allergies and chemical sensitivities, and a whole host of other debilitating signs and symptoms.4
Their early work challenged the easy narrative that outcomes of COVID-19 fit into a neat binary of “surviving” versus “not surviving.” Indeed, early scholarship by people living with Long Covid influenced the medical and scientific communities, which were largely focused on treating acute infections and mortality, to also consider the emergence of this new form of chronic disease. It is an important recent example of how patient-led movements can help shape the trajectory of medicine and public health if we choose to listen.
Link (Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy Journal) [Open Access]