Long-Covid four years on ‘Things have not got better – and I now have another disorder’

Ireland may have moved on from the pandemic, but former businesswoman Miriam Cullen is among the long-Covid sufferers who, four years on, remain robbed of the health and life they had before the virus. Ms Cullen (63), from Walkinstown, Dublin, ran a busy childcare business, cycled everywhere and played in a ukulele band when she was struck by Covid at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 while visiting a relative in a nursing home. “I was very active with my work and grandchildren,” she said. The severe symptoms of the virus led to her attending a hospital emergency department three times – but she hoped once the infection passed, she would improve and return to normal health. Instead, she slipped into long-Covid, which can leave someone who had the virus with debilitating symptoms for weeks, months or in her case, years after infection.