Brendan Crabb, the Chief Executive of the Burnet Institute, informed a parliamentary inquiry that future strategies in managing COVID should consider individuals grappling with long COVID.
Long COVID refers to patients who continue to experience symptoms or develop new symptoms several months after their initial infection.
“Those who are suffering, we don’t know the exact numbers … but the numbers are large and of course they vary widely in severity,” Professor Crabb stated during the inquiry on Monday.
“This is a group who feel left out of the discussion. Australia’s policy is largely based around acute COVID, with trying to protect the vulnerable.”
On Monday, the rollout for the fifth dose of the COVID vaccine began. All adults who have not had a booster or an infection of COVID in the past six months will be eligible for an additional dose protecting them from the virus.
Crabb emphasized that increasing vaccine uptake was necessary to lessen the severity of COVID among patients and reduce the impact of long COVID.
“A fifth dose doesn’t help those who haven’t had their third,” he said. “The message isn’t getting through that for the first time in the best part of 50 to 70 years, life expectancy is going to decrease in Australia because of COVID, that is how significant it is.”
The head of the institute also advocated for enhanced measures to improve air quality in enclosed spaces as a means of reducing the spread of COVID.
Crabb suggested that the messaging surrounding COVID needed to change to account for those with long COVID.
“Subliminally at least, it’s very hard (for long COVID) to be taken seriously, for employers to take it seriously for example, let alone health professionals,” he said. “There’s a lot to learn, it’s a mysterious brain fog. It sounds like it’s in your head (but) it’s actually brain damage. We know what brain fog is to a large extent and we should probably use some words like that.”
Catherine Bennett, Epidemiology chair at Deakin University, told the committee there was a need for further research to better understand long COVID.
“Long COVID still needs to be well understood and it affects the ability to generalise results from trials or real-world data analysis of risk factors for long COVID,” Professor Bennett said.
Meanwhile, a second bivalent vaccine targeting Omicron sub-variants has been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Moderna’s vaccine — elasomeran and davesomeran — will be used as a booster dose in people aged 12 years and older. Evidence from extensive use in Canada, Europe, Japan and the US over recent months shown the booster provides clear reductions in hospitalisation and death, according to TGA.