Even the young and fit are hurt by Covid

ROD Humphris of the Raven pub in Bath, who hit the headlines raging at Keir Starmer recently, supports a sadly common view of Covid-19 as a disease bringing death and hospitalisation only to the weak and elderly. I do sympathise with the huge distress and devastation caused to vast numbers of people from the effects of lockdown, but it is essential that we stop Covid in its tracks, because this disease does not just affect “a few old people”. More than a million people in the UK are now living with Long Covid; symptoms that don’t go away after a two-week dose of “flu” but include significant damage to multiple organs.

Young, previously fit people of working age, even children, are reporting damage to their health that endures for weeks, months, and for as long as Covid has been around. At this point we don’t know for how long they will continue to suffer and remain unable to work. In some cases even those with symptom-less “mild” Covid have been found to have sustained lung damage.

This has been called a “mass disabling event”, and comparisons have been drawn with arthritis as a condition that is both common, and debilitating. In years to come I suspect that doctors taking medical histories of their patients will ask “have you ever had Covid?” in the same way that they ask now if you have ever smoked.

As lockdown restrictions ease I appeal to everybody, especially young people who have not yet been vaccinated, not to throw caution to the winds.

Please get vaccinated when it is offered to you, and play your part to stop Covid spreading. This disease has not gone yet and we are not safe until we are all safe.

Liz Baldrian by email