Expert Report for the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry by Dr Terry Segal and Professor Elizabeth Whittaker

[Sparkly Unicorn]

The expert report for Long COVID in CYP for the COVID Inquiry has been published. There is discussion about ME & Long Covid within it. But it essentially reads as a puff piece for the UCLH Long Covid Clinic, TRACCS & the CLoCK study. Whom both Whitaker and Segal were in the consortium.

There's is also discussion about how kids are confused between Long Covid symptoms and school avoidance.

As per form, the devil is in the detail, with some sense but the problematic issues sidled in.

It's also very keen to protect the MDT BPS model of the Long COVID clinic & pretty rough on private doctors.

Segal has been discussed in some depth on the forum - due to her problematic history in MECFS. Whitaker specialises in CFS & functional disorders - which says enough in itself.

It looks like the report was commissioned by Long Covid Kids via there involvement in the Covid Inquiry. There's also a link to it on their website.

https://www.longcovidkids.org/uk-covid-inquiry

INQ000587960 - Expert Report for the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry by Dr Terry Segal and Professor Elizabeth Whittaker, titled Module 8 - Children and Young People Long COVID in Children and young people, dated August 2025. UK Covid-19 Inquiry Archives

Expert Report for the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry by Dr Terry Segal and Professor Elizabeth Whittaker, titled Module 8 - Children and Young People Long COVID in Children and young people, dated August 2025.

covid19.public-inquiry.uk

 

[rvallee]

Overall not too bad on the facts, I've seen a lot worse, but massively understates, or misunderstands, how dire the situation is. It shifts between bluntly recounting facts that make it clear things are terrible, but finds its way to praise what has been done anyway, while lamenting that it all adds up to a missed opportunity.

There were some bits I wanted to quote here, especially from the final paragraphs, but somehow selecting text isn't working correctly.

All of this can be summed up the same as ever before: things are bad, most are pretending everything is fine, no one is responsible and no one with authority is bothered by that, so people are being abandoned to a horrible fate while fairy tales are being spun about how what's been done so far is fine.

No one is responsible for anything, and outcomes remain, for decades, terrible. Funny how that doesn't work, but there's no one responsible for the fact that no one's responsible so people who have been ignoring this can keep on ignoring it, no one will be blamed anyway.