Clodagh Finn: Could long Covid bring about an overdue revolution in patient care?

For too long, the voices of patients with chronic, debilitating conditions have not been heard — now is a time for change

Prof Liam O’Mahony, Dr Corinna Sadlier, and Ms Tanja Buwalda developed a study that examines the impact of long Covid on health and quality of life. Picture: Gerard McCarthy

Wed, 09 Nov, 2022 - 02:00

Clodagh Finn

Clodagh Finn is a journalist, writer and collector of stories. Her recent book, The Irish in the Resistance, co-authored with John Morgan, shines a light on the forgotten contributions of the Irish who resisted Hitler during WW2.

IT’S very hard to take positives from long Covid, the debilitating condition that strikes sufferers with a bewildering array of symptoms and lingers on for many months, even years, after the initial infection.

Earlier this week, a new survey found that 90% of people with long Covid (from a sample of 988) had still not returned to pre-Covid health. The average patient still had up to eight symptoms — with some reporting as many as 33.