LCK In The News

In a special edition of our weekly news show, FYI Investigates: Kids with long COVID. An estimated 117,000 children across the UK are struggling to shake off coronavirus symptoms weeks, even months, after falling ill with the virus. Many are struggling to get the medical help that they need and some have missed out on school for more than a year. In this special episode, the kids with long COVID tell their story.

Speaking at the Covid inquiry on Friday, long Covid experts Chris Brightling and Rachael Evans said for those working in the area of post-viral diseases, it was obvious it could become a “potential problem”.
Brightling, a professor of respiratory medicine at the University of Leicester, said: “It was foreseeable to us before the pandemic because we were aware of what had happened with SARS-CoV-1 and it was even more apparent early on in the pandemic that this could be a potential problem.”
Ondine Sherwood, founder of Long Covid SOS told the inquiry “There was no public messaging about long Covid at all. So not only were people at risk of getting and developing long Covid, they didn't know about the risk. Long Covid groups protested outside the hearing centre in London today, holding signs reading: “Believe me” and: “Help me.”

The Press and Journal reports that cross-party politicians have joined forces to write to Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf demanding answers for 175,000 people with long Covid. In June last year, Mr Yousaf met families of children with long Covid.
Helen Goss, who is COO for Long Covid Kids and Scottish Rep for the charity, is reported as saying nothing has changed to support her daughter Anna, who is in a wheelchair. “Over a year later and we still have no paediatric support, diagnostics or treatment... If families cannot afford private healthcare, they are isolated and forgotten"

Ministers are “failing” children with long Covid amid a refusal to commit more support for patients suffering with the debilitating condition, campaigners have said.
Helen Goss, whose daughter Anna now uses a wheelchair because of long Covid, said a letter by public health minister Jenni Minto was “complete drivel”.
Minto was replying to cross-party politicians demanding evidence of what action has been taken to help the estimated 175,000 people, including children, with the condition.

The WHO reports that as we transition out of the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the perplexing shadow pandemic of long COVID continues. There is a long way to go before the mechanisms of the virus are understood and broad-ranging treatments can be applied.
Professor Berg calls on health systems, politicians and policy-makers to recognize the impact of long COVID, increase access to health care for those who need it, and establish multidisciplinary health-care teams that include patient representatives in treatment strategies.