Dr. Colm Henry:

Yes. If we go back to 2020 people were very acutely ill. We said at the time it was not flu. There was a high conversion rate to ventilation on assisted respiratory devices in a ward setting. It was much higher than any other viral illness we were used to at that scale. It was not surprising that we saw a large degree of residual symptoms in people in a post-acute period for weeks afterwards. The question the Deputy and others have is about long Covid syndrome for 12 weeks or longer. It appears less strongly related to the initial acuity of the illness. We also see it in people who were not severely ill initially. It also seemed less tied to age. There is something counter-intuitive about the pattern of long Covid syndrome. It does not necessarily reflect the initial acuteness of illness and does not necessarily reflect how old or frail a person may be.