David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Dr. Lambert. We have met a few times before. I think it was mainly as part of media interviews so it is nice to see him in the flesh.

I want to go through a number of items in his opening statement because it chimes very much with a lot of what we heard in a submission we received from the long Covid support group, which is called Long Covid Ireland. It is made up of patients who have long Covid who are telling their story. Maybe we can have the group before the committee at some point as well. It is important we hear from the patients suffering from long Covid.

In the very early stages of Covid, Dr. Lambert's organisation received a HRB grant and he led a project that established a clinic to provide, as he said, a research plan as well as a clinical care centre. At the start, the project developed a protocol called Anticipate, where 155 patients initially consented. To date, over 1,000 patients have been seen with 80 follow-up patients and 25 or more patients being seen monthly. Dr. Lambert made an important point that was also made in the submission we received from the long Covid support group. Dr. Lambert said it appears the lungs and heart were, in the early stages, the target of damage but the more research he did, the residual damage was actually brain damage. Is that correct? Is it a fair and accurate reflection of where he sees it now?