Dr. John Lambert:

We do not really know. We can tell clinically that the signs and symptoms are coming from the brain. We hear about anosmia and the loss of taste. Two years later, one of my colleagues still cannot taste or smell anything and does not drink Guinness because it used to taste good but now tastes like a septic tank. Some people have been impacted in that way, but it is not just those nerves that are affected. All of the nerves are. I have people coming in with hoarseness, repeated coughing and swallowing problems in what is almost a stroke-type syndrome that persists for months. Some patients recover and some do not.

Research studies in other countries have examined brains using PET scans, which have shown abnormalities – hypometabolism, lack of blood flow to areas of the brain that control the respiratory and pain centres, the vagus nerve, which controls blood pressure, heart rate and thermal regulation, tachycardia and bradycardia. These are the symptoms with which patients with long Covid are presenting.