How did we get here? Explaining the news

Talking Covid-19 with Dr Nathalie MacDermott: What has changed and what can we expect next?

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Episode notes

No one could have foreseen the journey ahead of us. The effects of Covid-19 have touched every aspect of our way of life. But are we capable of living with the consequences and can government adapt? In February 2020, Andy Bell spoke with NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Paediatrics (Infectious Diseases) at King's College London, Dr Nathalie MacDermott about the 'strange' coronavirus which was just beginning to cause harm around the world. 16 months later, Andy Bell has gone back to Dr MacDermott to talk about what has happened since then and what we can expect next. In this episode, Dr MacDermott tells us her own story: she caught Covid at the beginning of last year and she has not fully recovered. "Somehow there has been some kind of damage to my spinal cord [...] And over the last year there seems to have been a progression of gradual loss of different neurological functions, so I now walk with crutches." She also worries that the current government strategy is risky and does not take into account the fact that even if people are not hospitalised, they can still suffer real ill health as a result. "Long Covid has a potential to cause a significant damage not just to people's lives and livelihood, but to our economy by people being sick of work for a year or more."