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How and why patients made Long Covid

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  • Callard, Felicity
  • Perego, Elisa

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 Twitter: 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Callard, Felicity & Perego, Elisa, 2021. "How and why patients made Long Covid," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:268:y:2021:i:c:s0277953620306456
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113426
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    References listed on IDEAS

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