In April 2022, a charity called Long Covid Kids sent out an email to all schools to ‘shine a light’ on what they term Post Covid Syndrome. The 140-page report details the harrowing effects of Long Covid on children’s physical and mental health. It also details their four main mission statements; to raise awareness, provide support, instigate research into Long Covid and provide action in the form of campaigns to mitigate the risks of Covid and ‘place wellbeing at the heart of education’.
To bolster their claims about the magnitude of Long Covid, the charity quotes the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to show that the number of children with Long Covid is increasing and there are currently 119,000 children suffering for as long as 12 months after infection. This equates to 1% of primary school-aged children and 2.7% of secondary-aged children.
Part of their awareness campaign includes links to videos, posters and blogs to help children and parents cope with Long Covid. Their website has images of children in wheelchairs wearing Long Covid Kids t-shirts and lying on beds looking sickly and forlorn.
They also publish images that highlight the words children use to describe living with Long Covid. Silhouettes of animals are filled with the harrowing words of suffering children. The adjectives include ill, depressed, angry, helpless, broken and anxious. They also described that it is draining, exhausting, tiring, scary, horrible and never-ending.
When the charity give details about the disease itself, they give an incredibly long list of symptoms. Page-13 of the report titled ‘Five ways that Sars-Cov-2 is different to flu’, describes how Covid is not just a respiratory disease. Apparently, Covid can also affect organs. It states that young, fit people who had mild or asymptomatic infection could still suffer from myocarditis. It also states that Covid can trigger other conditions such as blood clots, inflammation and diabetes and long-term neuro-cognitive dysfunction.
Page-22 lists a whole host of Long Covid symptoms in children that include brain fog, headaches, diarrhoea, vomiting, fever, swollen glands, skin rashes, joint and muscle pain, swelling, fatigue. Although many diseases can share symptoms – these are also common symptoms of HIV/AIDS.
Read More: Fraudulent ‘Long Covid Kids’ Charity is stealing money from the Foolish & Naive
