Getting ill during nice weather can be a real downer. So it was pretty annoying to have recently caught Covid, again (and yes I’d been vaccinated, and infected, multiple times previously, but that’s not the point). When I returned from my (purely voluntary) self-isolation, I was met with raised eyebrows. “Oh, I didn’t think that was a thing any more” people volunteered, as if maybe my test-kit might’ve gone wonky after all the time in the cupboard. Perhaps I was particularly careful because I knew several people suffering from Long Covid, the debilitating and chronic post-viral condition affecting energy levels, respiratory system, memory and concentration levels. Some of my former students had reported extreme fatigue that would hit suddenly, and cognitive impairment beyond brain fog (accomplished maths graduates no longer able to perform simple calculations in their heads).
I wanted to get my own head around the topic, and what I learned was shocking. UK Government figures show there’s still around 3% of the population (a little under 2 million) people with Long Covid symptoms; many not in work or unable to fully participate in the workforce. Many more struggle quietly. And around three times that number – around 9% of the entire population – believe they may have Long Covid but have not received a diagnosis. That’s a staggering number of people and the situation is getting worse not better. You’d think we’d be talking about it every day. And for those thinking AI solves everything, it’s more likely that technology will replace the jobs people were hoping to return to, rather help improve their quality of life.
The national situation is more than just an uncomfortable inconvenience. Alarmingly, evidence suggests that each reinfection significantly increases the probability of developing Long Covid as viral particles accumulate in the body, meaning that we could be descending into a mass-unwell society. Having had Covid three times myself, that gets me twitchy. According to a recent Cambridge Econometrics report, if cases rise to 4m by 2030, the annual cost would be £4.2billion. In context, that’s similar to the £4.5billion savings planned in the government’s welfare bill (before the last-minute amendments). And yes, there are probably more than a few connections between those two things.
There’s no silver-bullet remedy here. Vaccinations, clean air solutions, effective work practice polices to ensure protection and recovery – all contribute to part of the answer which will inevitably need to be customised around a whole lot of individual circumstances. Complex and tricky.
Our response? Like many things which are: (a) difficult to solve; (b) not immediately in our face; and (c) inconvenient and annoying, there’s a good chance we look away. At a national level, the Department of Health and NHS have closed over half the Long Covid centres. Obviously, we can’t look away if we’re affected directly – because then there’s a situation to manage. But there are now 2 million (and counting) people in this country managing symptoms, quietly disappearing from view. The chances are you know somebody, or at least know somebody who knows somebody living with Long Covid. Given the epic scale, shouldn’t we be ‘doing something’?
When we’re psychologically overloaded, it’s difficult to think about things unless they’re directly confronting us. We collude with our brain to pretend it don’t exist and avoid thoughts about taking action. Like the film Don’t Look Up, we agree that maybe it’s time to just “sit tight”.
Let’s face it, this week’s been too hot to think about very much. Except for extreme heat from climate change perhaps, which many avoid thinking about when it isn’t hot. During the Covid pandemic, it suddenly became clear that collective solutions – involving citizens, business, health providers and public authorities – are better than piecemeal workarounds. But that insight, it seems, remains stubbornly out of reach pre-crises. We also saw the most vulnerable in society hit the hardest, even when they contributed little to the problem. Just like other global crises today.
The Covid pandemic taught us a good combination for overcoming overload is to look out for one another while demanding effective collective action. We need coordinated efforts, systemic innovation and behavioural changes. We’d do well to remember that for all the big problems that we’d rather not face.
Originally published in the Eastern Daily Press
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