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Home Publications Long COVID: Literature scan to inform policy response in the GTA

Sarah Sanford, Rishika Wadehra

Long COVID: Literature scan to inform policy response in the GTA

Long COVID

The delayed response to long COVID is concerning.

People with long COVID report difficulty breathing, brain fog, heart palpitations, and dizziness—among other symptoms. This impacts their ability to work and care for themselves and others. Gaps in our understanding of long COVID should not be used as a rationale for a delayed response to meet the needs of those with the condition. This is especially true as inaction is likely to further contribute to the inequities we’ve seen throughout the pandemic.

Attention to the following four areas is needed to provide supports to people with disability caused by the coronavirus:

1. Access to healthcare services
2. Workplace accommodations and conditions
3. Income supports
4. Community-based care and supports

This paper draws from a scan of research and literature on long COVID to outline these key areas for health and social policy decision-making. For each area, a brief summary of the research and corresponding pathways forward is discussed. The analysis then highlights the importance of prioritizing equity and considers how inequities may be exacerbated or remediated by policy responses.

Long COVID can impact anyone. Having adequate policies in place to protect people’s health, access to services, and their financial well-being is vital.

Download Long-COVID-Policy-Response-2022-Final
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Sarah Sanford

Sarah Sanford

Sarah Sanford is a researcher working on a Needs Assessment for the Supportive Housing Growth Plan in Toronto. Prior to joining the Wellesley Institute, she worked at Toronto Public Health on a number of files related to the social determinants of health, including pharmacare and access to prescription medication, and approaches to reducing food insecurity in Toronto. Sarah has designed and led qualitative research for numerous research projects on the social and political dimensions of health and well-being. Sarah has a PhD from the University of Toronto where she engaged with critical social theory to study pandemic preparedness in global health policy.

Rishika Wadehra

Rishika Wadehra

Rishika holds a Master of Public Policy from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. Her policy interests lie in the areas of health and social policy, including child care, education, immigration, and inequality. Prior to joining Wellesley Institute, she completed a fellowship at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and worked as a research assistant at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Global Social Policy where she researched how different regions have responded to the growing demands for care work and its implications on gender inequality, racialization, the labour market, and population health. rishika_w

Acknowledgement of Traditional Land

We wish to acknowledge this land on which the Wellesley Institute operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.

Revised by the Ceremonial Committee at the University of Toronto Office of Indigenous Initiatives in April 2021.