Dr. John Lambert:

Coronavirus was first discovered in 1976 by a colleague of mine, Ken McIntosh, in America. Studies that have been done on the common cold virus, a coronavirus, indicate that people can catch three infections in one year. The antibodies a person gets from a first infection do not protect him or her from a second or third infection. This is not new information. This virus is smarter than the original coronaviruses. I do not think it will go away.

As regards the Chairman's comments in respect of it affecting the immune system, that is real. When possible, I look at the lymphocytes or white cells of patients with long Covid. Many of them have low lymphocytes. If a person has the flu, his or her lymphocytes go low but when the person recovers from the flu, a week later the level is back to normal. With some long Covid patients, however, my observation is that patients are taking an immune hit. This needs to be published. They are taking a hit on the brain and a hit on the immune system, even if it was just a mild Covid infection of the type that most people seem to be getting now. People are not wearing masks; they are taking a chance and saying it is just the flu. I disagree. It is not the flu. We should get the message out that people need to continue to be careful about catching it because the consequences of catching it are unknown. Anecdotally, I have patients who appear to be immunocompromised as a function of getting long Covid. I have given the committee the data on brain inflammation. Will that be permanent? We do not know.