September 1, 2021

First findings from world’s largest study on long COVID in children

A new study of nearly 7,000 children and young people in England has shed more light on the prevalence and symptoms of long COVID.

The CLoCk study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), compares thousands of young people aged 11-17 years old with matched controls.

This briefing brought together four members of the research team to outline their results and what they mean.

Please note this data is a preprint, so it is early work that has not yet been through peer-review and is not published in a journal.  

Speakers included:

Professor Sir Terence Stephenson, Nuffield Professor of Child Health, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, and Chair of the Health Research Authority

Professor Roz Shafran, Chair in Translational Psychology, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health

Dr Isobel Heyman, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Liz Whittaker, Senior Clinical Lecturer in paediatric infectious diseases and immunology, Imperial College London

This Briefing was accompanied by an SMC Roundup of Comments.