From doctors as patients: a manifesto for tackling persisting symptoms of covid 19

We write as a group of doctors affected by persisting symptoms of suspected or confirmed covid-19. We aim to share our insights from both personal experience of the illness and our perspective as physicians.\n\nTackling this problem will involve collaboration between politicians, healthcare services, public health professionals, scientists, and society. We call for the following principles to be used so that the best possible outcomes can be achieved for all people affected by persisting symptoms of covid-19.\n\nThe effects of the virus should be studied in the way that any other disease would be, with thorough attention paid to epidemiology, pathophysiology, and management. “We still know very little about covid-19, but we do know that we cannot fight what we do not measure.”1 Research and surveillance need to capture the full spectrum of disease, including in those not admitted to hospital and not tested, to build an accurate picture of covid-19 phenotypes. We need a clear definition for recovery from covid-19. While further evidence is awaited, clinicians should “be open about uncertainty and transparent in the ways in which we acknowledge the limitations of the imperfect data we have no choice …