The Elephant in the Waiting Room: An Urgent Call for Papers to Address the Public Health Crisis of Long COVID 2022 Pinto et al

Over the last two and half years, the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated headlines around the globe with Long COVID (also known as Post-Acute Sequelae of Covid-19 [PASC]) emerging as a significant health issue. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines Long-COVID as a post COVID-19 condition that occurs among persons with probable or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, usually 3 months from the onset of COVID-19, that lasts for at least 2 months, and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis (2021). Fatigue, shortness of breath, and cognitive dysfunction are among the most common symptoms (WHO, 2021). However, clinical presentations are variable. In fact, more than 100 symptoms have been documented; at least a quarter of affected patients report symptoms, including pain, that impact their activities of daily living (Davis et al., 2021; Lambert et al., in press). Symptoms may be new onset, following recovery from acute COVID-19, or persist from the initial illness. Symptoms can also fluctuate or relapse and remit over time.

As nurse clinicians, scientists, physicians, and health care providers, it is important to address Long COVID in our practice and research, as quickly as possible, and share findings in a manner that promotes universal awareness of Long COVID as a global health crisis. Just as we need to repurpose or innovate novel treatments, there is an impetus for our science to promptly contribute to establishing a Long-COVID evidence base, which is currently sorely lacking (Pinto et al., 2021).

Open access, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10547738221132603

 

Several elephants in the Long Covid waiting room.

 

Indeed, including how the authors of this article mention about learning lessons from other conditions but completely fail to mention ME.

 

Have they tried yoga?

 

Yeah. One flaw in this otherwise encouraging paper. They're discussing long Covid research in the context of the Human Genome Project and the enormous progress in managing HIV. The implication is obvious--that we should pursue a treatment for LC just as fervently.