Thread by @CervanteeWild

The Double Invisibility of Long Covid in children - our new paper just published in @socscimed



Children with LC encounter double invisibility due to low social currency of LC and their age

@KateHunt2013 @AliceMacLean_1 @sueziebland
@LongCovidKidssciencedirect.com/science/articl…

We use social currency to describe the extent to which an illness experience (i.e. Long Covid) elicits understanding and acceptance by wider society

Long Covid's lack of social currency plus the difficulty of effective ‘severity signalling’ and stereotypes about unwell children and their parents, contributed to participants' inability to gain traction with their peers, social circles and healthcare professionals

Children/teens with LC came up against stereotypes about adolescents - lazy, self-centred, temperamental, going through a phase. Young women encountered stereotypes of being over-dramatic, hormonal or anxious

The existence of Long Covid in children challenges dominant pandemic narratives at time of interviewing: that Covid was mild, it didn't affect children, and that the pandemic was 'over'

Society's low tolerance for illnesses that do not resolve and/or defy explanation means that encountering the experiences of people with Long Covid can be jarring, challenging, and disturbing – a threat to society's collective ‘triumph’ over Covid

Children w LC stand at the 'hinterland' of candidacy for sick care. They exceed their accepted stay in the ‘kingdom of the sick’, encounter disappointment from healthcare professionals, teachers and peers in response to disclosure of their continuing Covid illness

We are grateful to all the children and parents who shared their stories with us 🙌

And supporting orgs like @long_covid @LongCovidKids @LongCovidSOS @LongCOVIDPhysio @LCKScotland @LCKNIreland @lckwales