Inside Health

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Series that demystifies health issues, bringing clarity to conflicting advice.

Series that demystifies health issues, separating fact from fiction and bringing clarity to conflicting health advice.

BBC Radio 4 LW

Inside Health: Why recovering from long Covid is a lot like training for the Olympics

Why recovering from long Covid is a lot like training for the Olympics

BBC Radio 4 - Inside Health, Why recovering from long Covid is a lot like training for the Olympics

We visit the first long Covid clinic to find out what we've learnt about the condition.

Laura Foster visits the UK's first long Covid clinic to find out what we've learnt about the condition - and whether we're any closer to seeing the end of it.

BBC health journalist Laura Foster can’t get the first days of the pandemic out of her head; the stunned silence of the newsroom as the first lockdown was announced, the chaos and noise at the supermarket and the empty streets of London.

But even though she was a reporter covering every twist and turn of the story, she still can’t remember the first time she heard about long Covid.

The world was so engrossed by the immediate threat that few paid attention to what was happening around the edges; the people whose lives didn’t move on after that little red line disappeared from their test and whose symptoms never went away. 

And that problem was getting bigger and bigger by the day.

We visit the UK’s very first long Covid clinic where healthcare workers started learning about this life-shattering disease in the hospital car park - and we find out why recovering from long Covid is a lot like training for the Olympics.

What did we know back then – and what do we know now? And are we really any closer to seeing the end of long Covid?

Details of organisations offering information and support with long Covid are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Presenter: Laura Foster
Producer: Gerry Holt
Editor: Martin Smith
Production co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Inside Health

Why recovering from long Covid is a lot like training for the Olympics

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4