The Long Covid Plan for Ireland: Is it too little, too late?

• Published date: 01 October 2022

Many hospital nurses and consultants became infected, some were hospitalised, some became critically unwell. We were told that COVID-19 was not that "infectious" and you did not need to use a face mask if 2m apart. We were told that children were not a source of COVID-19 spread, but time has shown they are a significant reservoir

Reports from China in Spring of 2020 revealed that some patients were still unwell three months later; a doctor in the UK, who acquired COVID-19 and had not recovered, coined the term "Long COVID" to describe those still sick three months and beyond. I reviewed the published studies of previous coronavirus outbreaks, for example Sars and Middle Eastern Sars (MERS), both other forms of coronavirus.

The studies showed that some patients infected with Sars and MERS had developed similar post-viral symptoms of chronic fatigue and a wide range of other issues including brain fog. We should have seen Long COVID coming and prepared accordingly.

Research was showing, as early as Spring of 2021, that the hearts and lungs healed but the brain was not. Many patients had lingering symptoms related to brain inflammation

The Mater hospital, where I work, started to study Long COVID in May of 2020. Scientific research is critical to devising strategies to deal with Long COVID. Science should win the day. We anticipated Long COVID would linger, just as it did in China, just as it did with Sars and MERS, and monitored patients over the following 12 months.

The first strain of COVID-19, the Delta variant, and indeed a few of the following variants, caused severe illness and heart and lung damage, but one of our first studies reported that about a third of acute COVID patients had persistent neurological involvement, suggesting brain inflammation.

And our research was showing, as early as Spring of 2021, that the hearts and lungs healed but the brain was not. Many patients had lingering symptoms related to brain inflammation: brain fog, head pressures, concentration problems, sleep disturbances, exhaustion, "crashing", personality changes. Our research studies identified persistent neuropsychiatric problems, including depression in 18 per cent of patients, unexplained anxiety in 13 per cent, and post-traumatic stress disorder in 21 per cent; all in people with no previous psychiatric problems. Sadly many of these patients were unfairly given psychiatric diagnosis, as all other tests were "normal".

These patients, many of them healthcare workers...