Europe UK (Commonwealth Union) – Long COVID is generally when people continue to experience symptoms of COVID-19, for an extended period of time even after they have recovered from the acute phase of the illness. These symptoms can be mild to severe such as, difficulty breathing, chest pain, brain fog, loss of taste or smell, muscle pain, and many others.
Many researchers have not concluded the reason some people experience long COVID while others do not. Factors such as age, preexisting health conditions, and the severity of the acute illness may play a role. It’s also possible that some people who experience long COVID may have developed a post-viral syndrome, which is a condition where a person continues to experience symptoms after recovering from an illness.
A new study conducted by the University College London (UCL) found that approximately 45 percent of all young people indicating long COVID felt they lagged behind their classmates as a result of the pandemic, as roughly 59 percent indicated that they failed to catch up with lost learning.
Patterns of long COVID further demonstrated variations by young people’s social background. Where 20 percent of comprehensive state school students indicated COVID-19 either presently or on prior occasions to have had long COVID, when contrasted to 1 in 6 grammar and independent school pupils (16 percent). The study further discovered that those from the most disadvantaged locations of England were more likely to report long COVID, when contrasted to those from the least deprived locations (25 percent vs 18 percent).
COSMO Principal Investigator, Dr Jake Anders (UCL CEPEO), says “With attention on issues around COVID-19 fading, we should not forget its continuing effect on those for whom it was a particularly debilitating illness to experience. Some continue to suffer from long COVID.
“Even those who have recovered have seen implications for their wider lives and life chances, such as lower academic attainment scores for those who experienced severe long COVID. These impacts also seem to have reinforced existing health and socioeconomic inequalities.”
