The headline numbers are far too high but new studies show that long Covid is all too real for tens of thousands
Let’s get straight to the nub of it: some of us suspect that many of the 1.9 million people reported to have “long Covid” are not really sick at all.
It’s not a very woke view, so people don’t like to broadcast it, but when the filters are off in the newsrooms, pubs and even hospital canteens, it turns out to be what quite a lot of people are thinking.
Consider our former prime minister, Boris Johnson. The Covid Inquiry heard on Tuesday that, in October 2020, he “scrawled in capitals that long Covid was ‘bollocks'” on a document prepared by the Department of Health and Social Care.
“Mr Johnson has admitted in his witness statement that he didn’t believe long Covid truly existed, dismissing it as ‘Gulf War Syndrome stuff’,” said lawyers representing those with the condition.