Episode 26 - A Potential Treatment & Biomarker for Long COVID with Professor Nancy Klimas

Dr Funmi Okunola interviews Professer Rob Wüst,Associate Professor of Muscle Physiology in the Department of Human Movement Sciences at the VU University in Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Professor Mark Faghy, Professor of Clinical Exercise Physiology at the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at the Loughborough University in the UK about the recent scientific publication that they both contributed to; the International Society for Long COVID and Post Acute Infection Syndromes (ISLC-PAIS) and the conference pertaining to this organisation being held in August 2026 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. REFERENCES 1. Faghy MA, Wüst RC, Altmann DM, Ashton RE, McMullen SB, Duncan R, Ewing AG, Hausmann E, Gupta S, Hornig M, Joffe D. "Current status and future perspectives on the mechanistic and pathophysiological understanding of long COVID." Communications medicine. 2026 Apr 29;6(1):255. 2. The BMJ Article that stimulated the formation of the nature publication "Current Status and Future Perspectives on the Mechanistic and Pathophsiological Understanding of Long COVID". 3. The International Society for Long COVID and Post Acute Infection Syndromes

Dr Funmi Okunola interviews Professer Rob Wüst,Associate Professor of Muscle Physiology in the Department of Human Movement Sciences at the VU University in Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Professor Mark Faghy, Professor of Clinical Exercise Physiology at the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at the Loughborough University in the UK about the seminal research they have conducted for the Long COVID community. This is part 1 of a two part podcast special. REFERENCES 1. International Society for Long COVID and Post Acute Infection Syndromes 2. Appelman B, Charlton BT, Goulding RP, Kerkhoff TJ, Breedveld EA, Noort W, Offringa C, Bloemers FW, van Weeghel M, Schomakers BV, Coelho P. "Muscle abnormalities worsen after post-exertional malaise in long COVID". Nature communications. 2024 Jan 4;15(1):17. 3. Unraveled: Understanding Complex Illness with Dr David Kaufman and Dr Ilene Ruhoy 4. Profiling the Determinants of Long COVID by Professor Mark Faghy et al

Dr Funmi Okunola MD interviews Dr Guillaume Dedet MD, MPH, MSc, MA - Senior Health Economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and Dr David Kelly MD, MPH, MRCIP, CSCST - Public Health Physician & Epidemiologist at the OECD about their April 2026 report - "Addressing the Costs & Care of Long COVID for Long COVID the Long Shadow of the Pandemic". We also dive into their October 2025 OECD report - "The Prevalence and Impact of Long COVID in the Primary Care Population - Findings from the OECD PaRIS Survey". REFERENCES 1. Addressing the Costs & Care of Long COVID for Long COVID the Long Shadow of the Pandemic. 2. The Prevalence and Impact of Long COVID in the Primary Care Population - Findings from the OECD PaRIS Survey

Dr Funmi Okunola MD conducts three interviews with 4 representatives of the World Health Organization - Dr Maria Van Kerkhove PhD -Director of the Department of Epidemic & Pandemic Threat Management; Dr Jamie Rylance MD - Clinical Lead for Long COVID and part of the Clinical Management Team of the Health Emergencies Program; Cristiana Salvi - Regional Advisor for Community Resilience & Protection in the Health Security Division of WHO Europe; Leonardo Palumbo - Technical Officer in Community Engagement in the Health Security Division of WHO Europe. We talk about the WHO's support of Long COVID through advocacy, education research and community engagement and the steps the organization is taking to ensure Worldwide equity with regard to access to health resources for those living with Long COVID. REFERENCES: The World Health Organization Website The WHO declares COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30th Jan 2020 The WHO declares COVID-19 a Pandemic on the 11th March 2020 Dr Maria Van Kerkhove's Speech at the UBC Centre of Disease Control Global Health Security Summit in Vancouver Canada on 5th Nov 2025 WHO Mythbusters - 30th Jan 2026-31st March 2026

Professor David Putrino is a physiotherapist with a PhD in Neuroscience. He is currently the Director of Rehabilitation Innovation for the Mount Sinai Health System, and a Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Professor Putrino recently opened the Mount Sinai Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illness in New York also known as (CoRE) and serves as CoRE’s Family Director and is also a member of PolyBio’s Long COVID Research Consortium. Today's episode is the second in a two part series looking at research into potential treatments for Long COVID. REFERENCES 1 Polybio Article - A clinical trial of repurposed HIV antivirals in Long COVID 2 Patterson BK, Yogendra R, Guevara-Coto J, Mora-Rodriguez RA, Osgood E, Bream J, Parikh P, Kreimer M, Jeffers D, Rutland C, Kaplan G. Case series: maraviroc and pravastatin as a therapeutic option to treat long COVID/Post-acute sequelae of COVID (PASC). Frontiers in Medicine. 2023 Feb 8;10:1122529. 3 Polybio Article - Long COVID low-dose rapamycin clinical trial 4 Polybio Article - Lumbrokinase Long COVID & ME/CFS clinical trial