The Future of Long COVID

This book provides an overview of Long COVID, the chronic illness and disability that can result from COVID-19 infection in 20–30% of survivors. It approaches the topic through its larger social, political, and historical context utilizing the Threatcasting methodology for scenario-based foresight. The book brings together multiple perspectives on Long COVID, such as patient experiences, healthcare system impacts, historical frameworks, and the information ecosystem surrounding COVID to explore the long-term structural implications of Long COVID beyond the current acute crisis. It is intended to be a guide for policy makers, healthcare providers, researchers, and anyone whose work will play a role in mitigating the long tail of COVID-19. Framing the pandemic within a historical and political framework while approaching Long COVID from the future-casting perspective, this book seeks to disentangle the issues posed by Long COVID from the current moment and is intended to establish newways of thinking about and preparing for similar complex, over-the-horizon potential threats.

• The first book to apply the Threatcasting framework to a public-health issue like COVID-19
• Draws together multiple perspectives of Long COVID that were previously discussed independently within their fields
• Comprehensively examines the history and future of Long COVID