🧵👇Important thread:

Dr. Rae Duncan emphasises that the Covid statistics do not capture the true extent of disability and suffering experienced by patients with Long Covid.
(@Sunny_Rae1) In her clinic, approximately 50% of patients, particularly young adults aged 16 to 40 with no pre-existing health conditions, are referred for Long Covid.

💥NEW REPORT: This morning’s @DailyMirror front page splashed new evidence submitted to our cross-party group on the uncertain future of NHS staff sick with Long Covid now facing the prospect of losing their jobs as pay support is cut. 1/ APPG Chair @LaylaMoran: “New evidence provided to the APPG on coronavirus should set alarm bells ringing in government. With the withdrawal of Long Covid pay support due next month, ministers risk exposing the NHS to years of costly tribunal cases.” 2/ mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/n…

🚨NEW REPORT: The APPG is today launching its Long Covid report, calling on the UK Government to fund research on, and support people living with, Long Covid. See our top recommendations in the thread below, and download the report here 🧵⬇️ 1/ appgcoronavirus.uk/report-on-long… There will also be a Long Covid backbench business debate in the House of Commons Chamber this Thursday in the afternoon session. Invite your MP to attend ➡️hey-mp.uk/?c=bbbd 2/

🗣Dr.Claire Steves continued:
“Looking in the national core studies, from cohort studies across the UK we’ve looked at 10 different longitudinal studies. Our best estimates are that about 5% of middle aged people are experiencing long term.. 27/
#APPGCoronavirus #LongCovid “..symptoms that are lasting about 12 weeks that are affecting their ability to function as normal. It’s less in younger populations, about 1.2% of 20 year olds. Overall that leads to approximately about 3% of the population that have had coronavirus, have had symptoms.. 28/

🗣 Dr. Claire Steves:
“While I’m doing epidemiological research, I’m also a clinician that sees people with Long Covid as well. I’m sitting in my clinic today. I’m a geriatrician which means that I work in a memory clinic, that’s why I.. 1/
#APPGCoronavirus #LongCovid “..see some patients that are referred through to me from Long Covid clinics but my role today in talking to you is I’m Cohorts lead for the CONVALESCENCE study which is one of the national core studies. Elements of it are looking at Long Covid but I’m also PI on the ZOE.. 2/

🗣Prof.Danny Altmann continued:
“One of the things that’s happened since we’ve last met, NIHR have put quite a lot of money into different studies to look at underlying mechanisms and better treatments.” 26/
#APPGCoronavirus #LongCovid “We certainly are networked into an enormous number of studies nationally and internationally, which I hope has got to be a good thing. But also I know that many sufferers get very cross with us because it feels like when they set up these studies, they suddenly start.. 27/

🗣 Professor Brendan Delaney: There are staggering numbers. The recent ONS survey shows that over 500,000 people have had Long Covid for over 12 months. 🗣Professor Brendan Delaney: “The best way of thinking about this right now is…we have a lot of symptoms that wax and wane and come back when people think they’re better... there are lots of overlaps between when you get one symptom and another symptom."

🗣Prof. Danny Altmann:
“Every word that Colin, Ravi & Rebecca said resonates so strongly, that all I can do really is put some meat on the bones and add to it. An overarching starting point, like everybody I get called by journalists and people.. 1/
#APPGCoronavirus #LongCovid “All the time, ‘are we there yet? Is it over? Has Omicron saved us?’ And of relevance for today, a pandemic is a fluid progression, there isn’t a day when it’s over and we’ve been through many phases and many variants and all of the countries are interlinked.” 2/

🗣Ravi Veriah Jacques:
“I know particularly, early on in the illness it was just incredibly difficult to go from being an active person in their 20s to spending all of my time in bed. It was probably one of the most depressing periods of my life” 1/
#APPGCoronavirus #LongCovid “Because I had no idea whether I’d get better, it went on for days and then weeks and then months and there was no change and I was completely despairing. I thought this would be my life, while I had to watch for the rest of my life, my friends would live the life.. 2/

🗣Colin & Rosie Pidgeon:
“If I’m honest some days she seems worse than a couple of weeks ago. I don’t know if that’s because she’s abandoned hope and that’s a very hard thing to see in your child. She’s on 2 different sets of antidepressants” 1/
#APPGCoronavirus #LongCovid “Does it feel like she’s getting better? No it doesn’t. I can’t answer it in any other way than that. When we look around and we see people like Ravi and Rebecca who’ve been struggling with this for months upon months, upon months, it’s scary.” 2/

🗣Ravi Veriah Jacques:
“I want to echo a lot of what Rebecca and Colin said. I think what I need is medical treatment and that’s exactly what I haven’t got so far. Psychological support is important, stuff like disability benefits is also important”1/
#APPGCoronavirus #LongCovid “Particularly for a lot of long haulers who have lost jobs and who need to support their families. That personally isn’t so important for me as I’m able to stay at home, but no amount of disability benefits or psychological support will give us our lives back.” 2/

🗣Colin and Rosie Pidgeon:
“At the moment, we have a good relationship with our GP’s, they’re great. When my friend sent me the article about how to assess and diagnose POTS, I rang the GP and they booked us in and did it,” 1/
#APPGCoronavirus #LongCovid “And followed the instructions in the article, so I can’t complain about the goodwill. But they haven’t got the tools. I don’t know whether Rosie has micro-clots, she quite possibly does but I don’t know of anywhere to get her tested. I’m sure QUB has the wherewithal..” 2/

🗣️ Rebecca Logan: "I feel hopeful that my symptoms may ease while i'm here [Germany], however I can't stay here funding this indefinitely to keep that hope alive" 1/

#APPGCoronavirus
#LongCovid
twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1… "If we have the equipment in the UK then what is stopping us from getting this up and going here? Rather than letting people go to Germany & other countries just to get that sense of validation and sense of hope"

🗣Colin and Rosie Pidgeon
“It was the start of September when this first started with Rosie and then it was the start of October when she was referred by our GP to paediatrics. She’d had a series of blood tests like Ravi,” 1/
#APPGCoronavirus
#LongCovid “To rule out things like low iron, or diabetes and things that can cause dizziness. So she was referred for an urgent paediatrics appointment, 12th October something like that. When I rang the hospital appointments line, it actually was the 1st Nov…” 2/

🗣️ Rebecca Logan: "Priority for me is to be believed and stop the gaslighting... there is evidence proving that it is a multi-system vessel condition. We need clinics that are face to face, led by a team who are educated" 1/

#APPGCoronavirus
#LongCovid
twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1… "Treatment that we'd get is based on current research, like anti-coagulation therapy, which is what i'm receiving in Germany... it is a key priority that we get this diagnosis of microclots and hyper-active platelets recognised in the UK" 2/

🗣️ Rebecca Logan: "I've had absolutely nothing from a Long Covid service in NI. I was told by my GP I was anxious and depressed and I was described antidepressants, despite me arguing that it was a physical condition" 1/

#APPGCoronavirus
#LongCovid
twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1… "I have been campaigning in NI from Sept 2020 to try to get answers & help... really we've all had to look for help ourselves. As an extremely unwell person, it is very very difficult, especially with brain fog, cognitive issues" 2/

🗣Colin and Rosie Pidgeon
“Rosie did her GCSEs last year, and she was on her second day of school starting her As Levels when she got pinged as a close contact. So we arranged for her to have a test the next day… 1/
#APPGCoronavirus
#LongCovid “Which she had and came back negative and then the day after that she was drinking orange juice in the kitchen and she said ‘Dad, I can’t taste this’. So we booked her in for a second PCR, again it was negative.” 2/

🗣️ Rebecca Logan: "Pre Covid I worked 12-18 hrs a week in my local ED and taught 12-14 fitness classes... I contracted Covid in April 2020 after working in Covid ED with inadequate PPE" 1/

#APPGCoronavirus
#LongCovid twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1… "I could not return to nursing as my brain fog and cognitive function was not good. Initially exercising was ok, however after 4 weeks of this I was becoming increasingly fatigued, breathlessness worsened... I was advised by a neurologist and cardiologist to stop and rest" 2/

🧵 In yesterday’s session on the UK Government’s ‘winter plan’ MPs and Peers heard how the UK is more vulnerable to a Covid winter surge than its European neighbours.

independent.co.uk/news/health/co… Professor Neil Ferguson warned that “we don’t have very much headroom” for an increase in cases in the months ahead.

the-sun.com/health/3796965…

🧵 Thread:

In a new report published today we have called on the government to urgently set out a timetable for the Covid-19 public inquiry, we believe it is essential that the inquiry publishes its interim findings prior to the next UK general election. telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… In the report we recommend that the government also sets up a new statutory body to oversee the implementation of the inquiry’s recommendations and test future pandemic preparedness.

** THREAD **

International Travel Report 📄

Summary of recommendations 👇🏼 1️⃣ The government should discourage all international leisure travel to prevent the importation of new variants & to reduce the risk of a third wave and further lockdowns. The government must also provide adequate financial support to businesses operating in the travel industry.