Answering Our Call to Care: Introduction to the Special Issue on Long Covid, 2025, Davenport

Answering Our Call to Care: Introduction to the Special Issue on Long Covid

Davenport, Todd E.

First paragraph (with line breaks added):

The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic largely has faded from the daily news, but it still plays a prominent role in our daily reality. In 2023, COVID-19 was the cause of death for 76,000 people—still averaging over 200 people per day—and remained among the Top 10 leading causes of mortality in the United States.1 COVID-19 infections seem almost ubiquitous now, as community-based mitigation efforts have waned and vaccine uptake in the population has remained low. Testing and reporting for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have become greatly diminished. Identifying cases, changes in clinical presentation based on variants, and potentially associated heath conditions is now much more difficult, because acute infections are substantially under-reported.

But beyond the direct consequences of acute infections, COVID-19 has led to the emergence of a quieter yet deeply impactful medical and public health challenge of our times—Long Covid. Perego,2 a social scientist, coined Long Covid in May 2020 based on her daily experience of wrestling with its deleterious effects. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, people living with Long Covid used this term on social media to share about their disabling signs and symptoms that were either a prolongation of the acute phase of illness or reappeared after short period of apparent recovery.3 Many of the earliest researchers in Long Covid were the patients themselves.

By turning a scholarly lens on their own experiences, patients created the first empirical descriptions of Long Covid. These included profound and disabling fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, shortness of breath, loss of taste and smell, poor digestion, new-onset allergies and chemical sensitivities, and a whole host of other debilitating signs and symptoms.4

Their early work challenged the easy narrative that outcomes of COVID-19 fit into a neat binary of “surviving” versus “not surviving.” Indeed, early scholarship by people living with Long Covid influenced the medical and scientific communities, which were largely focused on treating acute infections and mortality, to also consider the emergence of this new form of chronic disease. It is an important recent example of how patient-led movements can help shape the trajectory of medicine and public health if we choose to listen.

Link (Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy Journal) [Open Access]

 

This is the guest editorial for a special issue of Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy Journal dedicated to long COVID.

Link to table of contents

Listing of papers from the above guest editorial:

1. Laswell14 shares an essay relating her lived experience with Long Covid from her perspectives as patient and clinician,

2. Clancy and Dekerlegand15 present the results of a Long Covid practice survey from a multidisciplinary sample of rehabilitation providers in the United States,

3. Peirce et al16 provide a clinical model for safe physical therapy assessment and intervention approaches for individuals with Long Covid,

4. Rozanski et al17 contribute a cross-sectional study relating cognitive functioning and clinical outcomes in a sample of people living with Long Covid,

5. Skiffington and Breen share clinical approaches to addressing cognitive dysfunction related to Long Covid,

6. Cheng et al19 describe a model of care using shared medical appointments to address financial barriers and equity while providing high-quality information and peer support for people living with Long Covid,

7. Steere20 provides a clinical perspective on the use of heart rate variability for biometric monitoring in various health conditions including Long Covid,

8. Wright et al share a case study involving the use of enoxaparin to address symptoms and functioning in a person living with Long Covid,

9. Pereira et al22 contribute a study of health-related quality of life and functional status in a cohort of people with Long Covid,

10. Bates and Gustavson23 describe a case study involving a manual therapy approach for a person living with Long Covid, and

11. Anderson and Bauer present the rationale and clinical recommendations for providing virtual physical therapy care for people living with Long Covid.

(I'll add links to threads if/when they get posted.)

 

Long thread from Todd Davenport
https://twitter.com/user/status/1873771041845338555


A cross-post from for my Twitter friends.

A . Back in early 2022, the editorial staff of the @CPTJournal approved a Special Issue on Long Covid. Against all better judgement, I was selected to be its Guest Editor. The Special Issue published today.

Here are the contents.

Leading off is a lived experience essay by Samantha Laswell PTA (USA). It appropriately centers this volume of work on the patient’s voice. We clinicians and researchers benefit from leadership from people living with Long Covid in all we do.
https://journals.lww.com/cptj/fulltext/2025/01000/long_covid__a_lived_experience.3.aspx

Malachy Clancy PhD OTR/L BCPR and Robert Dekerlegand PT MPT PhD CCS (USA) share data from a nationwide multidisciplinary survey of rehabilitation clinicians on awareness of #LongCovid and related clinical practice guidelines.
https://journals.lww.com/cptj/fulltext/2025/01000/optimizing_long_covid_outcomes__an.4.aspx

Gabriela Rozanski PhD and colleagues (USA) present data from a cross sectional analysis of individuals with #LongCovid, which describes the relationship between cognitive dysfunction and self reported clinical outcomes. @putrinolab @LauraTabacof
https://journals.lww.com/cptj/fullt...ship_between_cognitive_dysfunction_and.6.aspx

Andreia Pereira BSc and colleagues (Portugal) provide an analysis of data relating #LongCovid and health-related functional status in a cohort of patients seeking outpatient rehabilitation.
https://journals.lww.com/cptj/fullt...t_covid_19_condition_on_health_status.11.aspx

Scott Peirce MHSc (New Zealand) leads an international group of clinicians in proposing a clinical framework for #LongCovid respiratory health care using contemporary case definition criteria. @BreathewellPT
https://journals.lww.com/cptj/fullt...rapy_framework_to_managing_long_covid_.5.aspx

Helen Skiffington OT BSc (UK) and Ciara Breen MSc HCM (Ireland) contribute a clinical perspective on clinical identification and management of cognitive dysfunction in individuals with #LongCovid.
https://journals.lww.com/cptj/fullt..._brain_fog___cognitive_dysfunction_and.7.aspx

Abby Cheng MD MPHS and colleagues (USA) share a clinical perspective describing the structure and content of a program of shared medical appointments to improve access and reduce access to rehabilitative care in individuals with #LongCovid.
https://journals.lww.com/cptj/fullt...ical_appointments_to_improve_equitable.8.aspx

Karin Steere PT DPT PhD provides an overview on the science and clinical application of measuring heart rate variability in people with #LongCovid, of interest to people and companies using HRV measurements to monitor disease activity and guide pacing.
https://journals.lww.com/cptj/fullt...e_based_clinical_utility_of_heart_rate.9.aspx

Meaghan Anderson PT DPT (USA) Naomi Bauer PT DPT CCS (Scotland) describe the rationale and best practices for providing rehabilitative care through telehealth for people with #LongCovid.
https://journals.lww.com/cptj/fullt...clinic__virtual_care_as_the_future_of.13.aspx

Ciara Wright PhD @CiaraGlenville (Ireland) leads an international team in contributing a case study describing the use of enoxaparin to addresss functional deficits associated with #LongCovid. @dbkell @resiapretorius @PutrinoLab
https://journals.lww.com/cptj/fulltext/2025/01000/treatment_of_long_covid_with_enoxaparin.10.aspx

James Bates PT DPT and Allison Gustavson PT DPT PhD (USA) present a case study involving the use of manual therapy to improve breathing and function in an older adult with #LongCovid.
https://journals.lww.com/cptj/fullt...ting_manual_therapy_techniques_in_the.12.aspx

And finally, my guest editorial discussing this moment in history, science, and clinical practice with #LongCovid, and the role and contributions of this Special Issue given where we are at this time in answering our call to care.
https://journals.lww.com/cptj/fullt..._our_call_to_care__introduction_to_the.2.aspx

Can’t forget a couple of papers that were slightly behind in the editorial process, so they weren’t published in the January issue but are already published online and will be chaptered with the April 2025 edition of the Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy Journal.
Andrea Lopes Sauers PT PhD (USA) and an international team of scholars provide a systematic review of data regarding health related quality of life measures used in people with #LongCovid.
https://journals.lww.com/cptj/fullt...rapy_outcome_measures_used_in_persons.58.aspx

And Kiera McDuff BScPT MScPT @mcdkiera (Canada) leads an international team of scholars to present a framework for research priorities based on a mixed methods analysis of information from a diverse group of stakeholders. @UofTCOVIDRehab @longcovidphysio
https://journals.lww.com/cptj/fulltext/9900/priorities_for_research,_education,_clinical.57.aspx

There are yet a few more manuscripts also still in the editorial pipeline and tentatively slated for the April 2025 issue if everything works out and they are accepted, so watch this space for even more great #LongCovid scholarship.

My hope with this special issue was to incorporate patient perspectives and needs to bear witness, document historical context, and center the work epistemically. I also wanted to bring a mix of scholarship, so anyone picking up this volume of work could take away something new.

Of course none of this would matter without a whole community of people, including authors who entrusted this special issue as a home for their work. Special thanks the authors living with #LongCovid, who somehow balanced living with the disease and demanding editorial timelines.

Thank you also to the small army of volunteer manuscript reviewers and editorial committee, the Journal staff, and our Editor In Chief Dr. A. Gurovich, all of whom put up with my often oddly-specific editorial standards with patience and grace throughout the entire time.

Onward.