Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what research his Department has commissioned on (a) long covid and (b) other autoimmune conditions and their treatment; what assessment he has made of the potential correlation between long covid and gender; and if he will make a statement.

The National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation have funded a post-hospitalisation COVID-19 study to understand and improve long-term health outcomes for people hospitalised with COVID-19 and four research studies specifically looking at the long-term effects in non-hospitalised individuals. In addition, a second ‘long’ COVID-19 research call is currently underway.

Part of the research studies will be investigating possible risk factors including any possible correlation with gender.

There is a range of active research on a range of auto immune conditions and their treatments. In the past three years, 91 research awards have been made.