How and why patients made long Covid

Callard, F. and Perego, E. (2021) How and why patients made long Covid. Social Science and Medicine, 268, 113426. (doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113426) (PMID:33199035) (PMCID:PMC7539940)

Abstract

Patients collectively made Long Covid – and cognate term ‘long-haul Covid’ – in the first months of the pandemic. Patients, many with initially ‘mild’ illness, used various kinds of evidence and advocacy to demonstrate a longer, more complex course of illness than laid out in initial reports from Wuhan. Long Covid has a strong claim to be the first illness created through patients finding one another on social media: it moved from patients, through various media, to formal clinical and policy channels in just a few months. This initial mapping of Long Covid – by two patients with this illness – focuses on actors in the UK and USA and demonstrates how patients marshalled epistemic authority. Patient knowledge needs to be incorporated into how COVID-19 is conceptualised, researched, and treated.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Chronic illness, COVID-19, expertise, long-hauler, patient activism, patient groups, SARS-CoV-2, social media.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Callard, Professor Felicity
• Authors: Callard, F., and Perego, E.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences
• Journal Name: Social Science and Medicine
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0277-9536
• ISSN (Online): 1873-5347
• Published Online: 07 October 2020
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2020 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Social Science and Medicine 268: 113426
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License