There’s some good news in the battle against long Covid

‘Long Covid remains a real risk, but the best way to avoid it is to avoid getting infected (or reinfected) in the first place. That’s why there’s a pressing need for autumn boosters.’ Photograph: Lindsey Parnaby/AFP/Getty Images

As a scientist who works every day on the immunology of Covid-19 and long Covid, I’m well aware that, heading into autumn and the return to school, the UK faces yet more Covid confusion and disharmony. Where are we headed next? Isn’t it over? And why keep harping on about mitigation when we now have so many other concerns?

Any discussion of our current Covid situation must consider the legacy of disability and misery associated with long Covid. In my opinion, there is now some good news among the old bad news. Over the past few months, Office for National Statistics data shows the estimated number of people with long Covid beginning to fall, from a peak of 2 million in May to about 1.8 million. I take this to mean that some are gradually recovering. And while long Covid following Omicron BA.5 infection is clearly happening, new cases of long Covid are appearing at a lower frequency. Colleagues in Singapore, a country with a large peak of Omicron infections following a relatively mild early pandemic, mention talk of quiet long Covid clinics without patients.