UK: All Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, March 2022 onwards

Press release:

"MPs call on UK government to spend £100 million a year to research treatments for Long Covid

Report finds UK government has ‘not adequately funded’ Long Covid research and treatments

MPs and Peers say UK Government inaction means Long Covid will continue to impact UK productivity and essential services


For Immediate Release

The UK Government is today facing calls to ensure that the £50 million pledged for Long Covid research funding is doubled and matched each year to support the development of new treatments for Long Covid.


In a new report published by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Coronavirus today, cross-party MPs and Peers have recommended the UK Government double the £50 million pledged in the ‘Living with Covid’ plan each year to fund urgent new research into diagnostics and treatment, as well as providing financial support for key workers living with Long Covid.


The new report found that the UK Government’s Covid-19 policymaking has ‘continuously failed’ to take Long Covid into account, as well as failing to provide guidance, funding or support to employers and protecting children in schools. The report further found that the UK Government has not 'adequately funded’ research to identify treatments for Long Covid.


According to the latest ONS figures, an estimated 1.5 million people (2.4% of the population) are currently living with the condition in the UK, with the high number of resulting staff absences having a serious impact on the UK workforce, economy and vital public services.


Recent research conducted by the APPG estimated that 1.82 million days were lost to healthcare workers with Long Covid from March 2020 to September 2021 across 219 NHS trusts in England. Similarly, a survey conducted last month by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that a quarter of UK employers cited Long-Covid as one of the main causes of long-term sickness absence among their staff.


On Thursday, MPs will debate the government’s treatment of Long Covid and its impact on the UK workforce, which comes on the two year anniversary of the country’s first national lockdown.


Layla Moran MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, said:

“Living with Covid inevitably means living with Long Covid too, so it is crucial that the Government rise to this moment and commit substantial annual funding for research until we have developed effective treatments for this often debilitating condition.

“Long Covid is already affecting 1.5 million people in the UK, and if the government fails to fully grasp the enormity of this challenge now, we could be hurtling towards a long-term health and workforce crisis in the future.”


Dr Dan Poulter MP, Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, said:

“Prematurely scrapping free testing will likely lead to rising infections, and as more people become unknowingly infected with the virus, more people will unfortunately develop Long Covid too.

“While we are currently facing other international challenges, this pandemic is sadly not over. That’s why establishing an annual fund for researching and developing treatments for Long Covid is both the economically smart and right thing to do, as in the long run, it will help us to avoid severe impacts on people’s health and the UK economy.”


David Nabarro, Special Envoy on Covid-19 for the World Health Organisation, said:

“What does it mean to live with COVID? The virus is among us. It is constantly evolving. It causes serious illness and may kill people who are susceptible. It may also lead to long COVID with the extra risks it brings.

“The present pattern is that case numbers start to climb every three months or so: this implies a need to detect surges quickly, prevent transmission, protect those most at risk and prepare for explosive outbreaks. It is a time to listen to the health workers: they know what is happening and where it may lead. They want the best for everyone.”

Report available from https://www.appgcoronavirus.uk/report-on-long-covid-2022

 

Long Covid: Impact on the Workforce
– in the House of Commons at 1:21 pm on 31st March 2022.

debate

full debate
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2022-03-31a.1038.1&s=Chronic+Fatigue+Syndrome#g1042.1

 

The APPG for Coronavirus Twitter account posted a number of threads about yesterday's debate, https://twitter.com/AppgCoronavirus, if anybody is interested in looking through.

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1509575929428955136

 

From Twitter

"CALL FOR EVIDENCE: Do you live with Long Covid? We want to hear from you. Specifically, we're interested in hearing about how Long Covid is impacting people’s employment.

Click below to tell us your experience
https://www.appgcoronavirus.uk/long-covid-evidence"

 

From Twitter

"Where are we on Long Covid? Join our live panel session chaired by the Telegraph's Global Health Security Editor @PaulNuki on Monday at 5:30pm, with @LaylaMoran, @DrDanPoulter and @Debbie_abrahams.

Watch here on Twitter or over on our YouTube channel youtube.com/watch?v=4rFsY4…"

 

If only they had spent that much toward ME research for the last 35 years, we could have a test to prove ME is real by now.

 

The live stream is happening now, and presumably will be available to watch later, here

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1526272160100233216

 

That horse has stormed out of the barn a loooooong time ago.

It's weird that people speak of things that have been happening for years as if they could be avoided in the future.

Jaime Seltzer put it marvelously today, something like you can't predict the future if you're still negotiating with the present. Hell, this is negotiating with the past, trying to avoid it happening. Sadly, those negotiations can somehow go on and on endlessly.