Long Covid impact ‘must be considered’ as cases on campus soar

This is timely, we had several cases of suspected covid-19 prior to effective testing, and more recently. Of those early suspected cases several people, including previously very fit cyclists and martial artists, have reported the symptoms of 'long-covid' and feeling exhausted for no apparent reason. The big concern is the myocardial damage, something students in the USA have suffered even though asymptomatic during the initial infection. Sadly like many UK Universities the P.R. aspects seem to be more important to senior management, so 'long-covid' is a long way down the list, well beyond hiding actual current case numbers from the staff and students so the press and public don't become 'aware'.

The science is not conclusive on this and there needs to be better testing to give a more accurate diagnosis of COVID. The use of PCR is misleading and has led to a high number of false positives. It it not clear what this 'long COVID' is, what are the biomarkers that link it to COVID and whether the underlying and confounding factors been considered. The numbers of these reported cases are small and therefore may not yield the conclusive findings needed. Common colds can also lead to further debilitation in small numbers of people. There is no need to create yet more panic. It is becoming clearer than ever that the whole COVID situation has resulted in needless fear, deprivation of liberty without protecting the truly vulnerable (aged and with co-morbidities) and an escalation of other far more serious illnesses that remain untreated or will emerge from this situation and the economic nightmare that may follow.

Thank you for the article. The research paper referred to is extremely interesting and well worth reading. Pity, really -- but alas not surprising -- that some people still persist in wanting to minimize the whole thing by ritually citing "the science" and recommending that we shouldn't trust it and should, instead, look the other way.