Opinion Long COVID should be a public health concern, 2026, Allen and Ward

[Andy]

Post COVID-19 condition (PCC), also known as Long COVID, is now widely recognised as a serious long-term health concern affecting at least 1.9 million people in the UK1 although the incidence is likely to be much higher due to undocumented cases.2 The condition is characterised by a range of symptoms which usually start following the initial COVID-19 illness and lasts for at least 3 months. For many people worldwide, the condition can be life-changing. ‘PCC can affect a person’s ability to perform daily activities such as work or household chores and restrict social participation’.3 Of the 1.9 million people experiencing symptoms of Long COVID in the UK, 19.2% describe these symptoms as severely limiting their daily activities.4 There is a greater incidence of Long COVID among minority groups5 and socioeconomic disadvantaged groups of people;6 therefore, health promotion, prevention, and protection measures are required to protect the most vulnerable in society.7

Long COVID is more than simply a long-term condition, and in this short article, it is argued that Long COVID should also be a public health issue. For as long as the SARS-CoV-2 virus (the virus that causes COVID-19) is widely circulating, post COVID-19 condition remains a substantial threat and ongoing challenge to global public health. This is for several reasons due to its significant and long-term impact on individuals, the healthcare system, and the economy. It requires a comprehensive public health approach involving prevention, health promotion, and protection to mitigate its effects.

Open access

 

[rvallee]

Pretty ironic to link to a Greenhalgh paper as the first reference.

The bigger question is: why isn't it? It obviously already should be. There is obviously something very wrong going on with this, and it clearly points to failing institutions that are not fulfilling their roles, aren't acting in the public's best interests and are not guided by either science or even common sense. In every single country, and in every single independent public health jurisdiction, at all levels.

But of course the answer to all those awkward questions is even more awkward, and it points back to decades in the past, because unlike what the paper concludes with, this is not a new illness, and it's precisely because such issues have long been known, and dismissed, that it's been covered up in broad daylight.

 

[Trish]

I haven't read the article, but the abstract reads to me like it was written by people who have been asleep for the last 6 years and just woken up and said: 'holy crap, is that old covid thing still going on, who'd a thunk it. Maybe we should start thinking of some things to do about it. I know, we'll write a paper to tell someone else to do something about it'.

In another six years time they'll wake up again, and say, 'I know, let's try rehabilitation exercises'.