Why recovering from long Covid is a lot like training for the Olympics
Inside Health
BBC
4.4 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 6 February 2024
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
BBC health journalist Laura Foster can’t get the first days of the pandemic out of her head; the stunned silence of the newsroom as the first lockdown was announced, the chaos and noise at the supermarket and the empty streets of London.
But even though she was a reporter covering every twist and turn of the story, she still can’t remember the first time she heard about long Covid.
The world was so engrossed by the immediate threat that few paid attention to what was happening around the edges; the people whose lives didn’t move on after that little red line disappeared from their test and whose symptoms never went away.
And that problem was getting bigger and bigger by the day.
We visit the UK’s very first long Covid clinic where healthcare workers started learning about this life-shattering disease in the hospital car park - and we find out why recovering from long Covid is a lot like training for the Olympics.
What did we know back then – and what do we know now? And are we really any closer to seeing the end of long Covid?
Details of organisations offering information and support with long Covid are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.
Presenter: Laura Foster Producer: Gerry Holt Editor: Martin Smith Production co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, |
| 0:05.4 | The Traitors Uncloaked. But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's |
| 0:10.6 | Saturday bonus episodes, the Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Ryland, and comedy specials |
| 0:16.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Rommas Shranger Nathan. However, and maybe I'm biased, it's really all about the traitors uncloked. |
| 0:24.3 | So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.6 | I bear you remember when the UK went into the first COVID lockdown, or how you felt |
| 0:34.5 | when you heard there was a vaccine. |
| 0:36.1 | But do you remember when you first heard about long COVID? |
| 0:39.9 | I know I don't. |
| 0:41.4 | I'm a BBC News health reporter, covering every twist and turn of the pandemic. |
| 0:46.3 | The world was so focused on the immediate threat |
| 0:48.9 | that few of us were paying attention to the longer-term problem |
| 0:52.1 | that was growing in the corner. |
| 0:53.9 | But a team at University College Hospital in London were, and they set up the UK's first |
| 0:59.4 | long COVID clinic. Today on Inside Health, we're visiting that clinic. And finding out what we knew |
| 1:05.5 | back then about long COVID, what we know now, and crucially, how close we are to seeing an end to it. |
| 1:13.9 | We were parked just out the back here outside the maternity wing of the hospital. |
| 1:19.4 | The truck was very similar to that supermarket delivery truck in size. |
| 1:23.3 | And very importantly, the driver George diligently parked the truck up there each morning. |
| 1:28.9 | Hello, my name is Melissa Heitman. I'm a consultant physician and I lead the post-COVID service. |
| 1:34.5 | Dr Heidman, why are we standing outside the hospital in the car park? |
| 1:38.5 | This is where it all began. Back in April, May 2020, that's when we started to realise that people had quite significant ongoing illness after COVID infections. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.