Long COVID: The Experts Were Wrong with Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly and Hazie Thompson

Could you have Long COVID and not know it? Possibly, according to a leading Long COVID physician-epidemiologist who explains what the condition is and how it has impacted millions of people around the world. We also meet someone living with Long COVID who shares what the experience has been like for them.

More than 400 million people (and counting) are affected by Long COVID around the world. Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly is a physician-epidemiologist and TIME 100 Health awardee in St. Louis. He is one of the world’s leading Long COVID researchers. As we approach the grim 5th anniversary of the COVID pandemic, he joins Daniella on Public Health is Dead to outline a major public health challenge of our time: If we don't die, what happens to many of us after we survive a COVID infection? Especially if we keep getting reinfected? Dr. Al-Aly explains what listening to patients allows the best researchers to do, addresses some of the common rebuttals to his team’s study data, and shares his recommendations to help turn this public health failure around.

We get to know Hazie Thompson, a former cook who has been living with Long COVID in Toronto since 2020 – they share how the condition has affected them and what they would like healthcare providers to know. The stakes of ignoring Long COVID are high.

People with Long COVID have been dismissed and ignored to everyone’s disadvantage because more people keep joining the ranks. There’s a lot of research. There are a lot of reports. But our public health leaders are pretty quiet about what Long COVID can do to us. Something’s getting lost in translation. And you deserve to know.

TRANSCRIPT HERE

RESOURCES
Experiences of Canadians with long-term symptoms following COVID-19 - Statistics Canada
BIRCH Project (founded by Hazie Thompson)
New York Times op-ed by Fiona Lowenstein and Hannah Davis
Long COVID science, research, and policy by Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly et. al. (2024)
The Sick Times & Long COVID Justice Resource Sheets
Find your nearest Maskbloc on the Worldwide Maskbloc Directory

Looking to help? If you'd like to support Hazie's Gofundme to help navigate living with Long COVID, please find it here.

CREDITS
Public Health is Dead is created, hosted, produced, written and edited by Daniella Barreto
Content editing by Lauren M.

FYI It’s a bad idea for you to take medical advice from podcasts. Good thing Public Health is Dead does not offer medical advice! The point of this show is to share information and experiences that might help public health as a field and increase our collective knowledge. As always, if you have particular medical concerns of your own you should talk to your own medical providers.

MUSIC
Outro music from Epidemic Sound: OTE/Black and White
Freesound:
bass pulse.wav by RichHeard -- https://freesound.org/s/443807/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 3.0
horror ambience 16.wav by klankbeeld -- https://freesound.org/s/137109/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
"CHARLIE BROWN" teacher wa-wa effect by JohnsonBrandEditing -- https://freesound.org/s/243379/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

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A very timely and important examination of public health

FINALLY, someone willing to say out loud what patients have been saying forever! In the era of RFK and Trump especially, it's so important to highlight medical science and examine the dangers that unmitigated infection poses to our health systems. Can't wait for the next episode!