A doctor has warned that the UK will pay an economic price for failing to consider long Covid when lifting restrictions.
More people are expected to develop long-term medical problems after fighting off the virus, which is why the Covid rules were dropped in England.
A specialist in infectious disease at King's College London said at a Royal Society conference on Thursday that high levels of infections would cause more long Covid.
We talk about hospitalisations and deaths, but I don't hear people say Covid is an issue. She said that we need to consider that when we adjust our public health measures, when we introduce different measures to try and contain this pandemic, or we decide not to have any measures at all.
According to the Office for National Statistics, 1.5 million people in the UK are living with long Covid, where symptoms from fatigue and brain fog to loss of smell and taste persist for more than four weeks after infections. Half of the people surveyed by the ONS had at least one ailment lasting at least a year. Older people, women, and obese people are more at risk of long Covid.
After catching Covid two years ago, MacDermott has to take cabs to work and use a mobility scooter because of the long Covid syndrome. She said that the condition would have a significant impact on people's ability to work, their earning potential, and costs to government and businesses.
It's not clear how well Covid vaccines reduce the risk of long Covid, but decisions on who to vaccine should have taken Covid into account. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, the government's vaccine adviser, was cautious about giving Covid vaccines to children because of the risk of long Covid. Many children will miss school and not fulfill their academic potential because of high infections.
Prof Danny Altmann, an immunologist at Imperial College London, said he couldn't agree more strongly.
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