Women and Long Covid
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2020
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
New research out this week suggests that 1 in 45 people who get COVID-19 will continue to be unwell after three months, even if their initial infection was mild. And, under the age of 50, it does seem that women are more likely to develop Long Covid than men.
People with Long Covid report on-going symptoms including fatigue, headache, shortness of breath, problems concentrating - ‘brain fog’ - and heart palpitations, which leave them unable to work, look after their families or even get off the sofa.
Support groups and campaigns to get recognition and treatment for this new and debilitating illness have sprung up – most of them led by women. Their efforts are now beginning to bear fruit, with among other things a network of Long Covid clinics recently announced for some parts of the UK. What more needs to be done?
Jane is joined by a panel of experts and campaigners to hear from some of you about how Long Covid has changed your lives since March, and to discuss the latest developments. She speaks to - Dr Nisreen Alwan, Associate Professor in Public Health, University of Southampton;Ondine Sherwood LongCovidSOS campaign co-founder; Dr Elizabeth Kendrick, GP & Medical Director of Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust who have been running a virtual Long Covid clinic since August and listeners – Emily, Gillian, Niluka and Morag.
Presented by Jane Garvey. Producers: Sarah Crawley and Louise Corley Editor: Beverley Purcell
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Fladiated. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:25.0 | searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:35.0 | Hi, this is Jane Garvey and welcome to the Woman's Our Podcast. |
| 0:38.0 | It's Friday, it's October the 23rd, 2020. |
| 0:42.0 | Hello, good morning to you, and in response to your emails on the subject today, we are focusing on long COVID. |
| 0:48.0 | Now, we do know that statistically across the world more men than women are dying as a result of COVID-19. |
| 0:56.7 | But what seems to be the case now is that more women than men are suffering the effects of COVID-19 for longer. This is so-called long |
| 1:05.2 | COVID. Now we're not suggesting for one minute that long COVID is restricted to |
| 1:09.5 | women and that men never get it. That's not what we're saying, but we're exploring the fact, |
| 1:15.0 | it does seem to be the fact that more women than men |
| 1:17.9 | are suffering for longer. |
| 1:20.0 | And it's something we're going to devote the whole program |
| 1:21.8 | to this morning. |
| 1:22.8 | Really welcome your thoughts on social media at BBC Women's Hour or you can email the |
| 1:27.4 | program via our website. |
| 1:29.2 | We have four listeners all over the British Isles. |
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