Campaigners from Long Covid Patient Action UK wish to highlight the urgent need for targeted scientific and biomedical research into the mechanisms and pathways causing the debilitating Long Covid/Post-Acute Covid Syndrome.
Long Covid (LC) now affects at least 1.3 million people in the UK (ONS, Jan 2022), including around 117,000 children. 1 in 50 UK citizens is now has Long Covid. There is now an abundance of robust, peer-reviewed scientific data published in reputable journals such as The Lancet, BMJ, Nature etc. showing LC affects cardiovascular, neurological, gastrointestinal, respiratory and immune systems for a prolonged period of many months following SARS-COV-2 infection. Many have now suffered from LC for 2 years and are simply not spontaneously recovering. 

The UK Government (DHSC) say that ‘over the last 12-18 months £50m has been spent on LC research’. Yet almost 96% of the UK 'research' funding allocated to study of Long Covid has been spent on lifestyle tracking apps and surveys on service provision, not on scientific study which could lead to advances in understanding and potentially treating 1.3 million people.

We ask that the Government urgently fund targeted, lab-based immunology, haematology, microbiology and neuroscience studies into the biological/molecular mechanisms causing Long Covid, led by the strong clues from scientific data published so far. We ask that the Government strongly urge the NIHR, UKRI, CSO etc to undertake studies in the above areas. We also ask that any potential drug treatments identified by similar robust international scientific studies are fast-tracked through the UK clinical trials RCT process. We ask that patients suffering other post-viral conditions such as ME/CFS are included in these same studies (concurrently as a discrete cohort) as recent research indicates the underlying ongoing pathology shares similarities with Long Covid.

Not only is Long Covid destroying individual lives, it is placing an unsustainable burden on NHS capacity and resources, depleting the workforce, reducing tax/NI revenues and will continue to stretch the benefit system for years to come unless urgent action is taken now.

Without research, no clinic, specialist or pathway can effectively treat us.
Research MUST come first.