A couple on the London Underground in March 2020. Photograph: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
A couple on the London Underground in March 2020. Photograph: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
Wed 14 Apr 2021 05.00 EDT
Last modified on Wed 14 Apr 2021 05.12 EDT
Rejoice! A mystery has been solved. We now have an explanation for long Covid, a condition afflicting many thousands of people. A super-spreader has been identified. Important as this finding is, Iâm reluctant to call for the vector to be eradicated. Why? Because itâs me.
In a presentation to the reinsurance giant Swiss Re, Michael Sharpe, a professor of psychological medicine at the University of Oxford and founder of a long Covid clinic, proposed that one of the causes of the syndrome was âsocial factorsâ. The social factor at the top of his list was an article I wrote for the Guardian, describing the suffering of patients with the condition.