Three years into the pandemic, some patients battle long Covid – and medical gaslighting

It’s increasingly clear that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is not going away any time soon. And for some patients, their symptoms haven’t gone away either.

In January, our team of researchers at the Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics and Society published a research brief about how people seek out information about long Covid. The brief was based on a scoping review, a type of study that assesses and summarizes available research. Our interdisciplinary team aims to understand the experiences of people with long Covid in order to identify opportunities to support health care and access to information.

Long Covid (also called Post Covid-19 condition) is an illness that occurs after infection with Covid-19, lasting weeks to months, and even years. First coined by a patient on Twitter, the term also represents a collective movement of people experiencing the long-term effects of Covid-19 and advocating for care. Around 15% of adults who have had Covid still have symptoms after three months or more.

Long Covid affects systems throughout the body. However, symptom fluctuations and limited diagnostic tools make it challenging for health-care providers to diagnose, especially with over 200 symptoms that may present in patients. Perhaps because long Covid presents itself in many different ways, the illness has been contested across the medical field.

To identify opportunities to reduce barriers to long Covid care, our team has explored...

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