Thread by @apsmunro

Incredible review on prolonged symptoms after #COVID19 from SAGE and the ONS

Worth reading in full, but here is a quick summary 🧵

Fortunately some reassuring stuff included in here, especially for kids!

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

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Firstly, admission that estimates of prevalence are massively uncertain (rage from 2.3% at 12w to >37% at 12w ?!)

Big issues here with vague definitions, method of asking questions, lack of control groups etc

Treat these estimates with extreme caution

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Risk factors pretty consistent, and appear to be:
- Increasing age
- Female
- Caucasion
- Obesity
- Asthma
- Poor pre-infection physical/mental health

People more likely to catch COVID-19 unsurprisingly more likely to have persistent symptoms (e.g. Health/Social care)

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What this means however is that otherwise healthy, young children have the lowest risk of having prolonged symptoms after #COVID19

So good news for the kiddos!

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This is reflected in the review on children specifically

They conclude that whist prolonged symptoms after #COVID19 do exist in children, they appear uncommon (no different to control groups in some studies)

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More good news next

Double vaccination halves the risk of prolonged symptoms after #COVID19 (as well as substantially reducing risk of getting infected)

Heavens to Betsy I love vaccines 😍💉

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Finally, some more evidence that #COVID19 is not that different to other respiratory infections

Risks of serious complications in other organ systems are significantly higher after hospitalisation with covid, but not compared to hospitalisation for other pneumonias

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So, prolonged symptoms are a serious problem, but fortunately seems much less significant for children

Also seems more in keeping with prolonged symptoms after other respiratory infections than previously feared

Most importantly - vaccines taking the sting out of it's tail

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