Long COVID: tackling a multifaceted condition requires a multidisciplinary approach.

In their Comment, Dana Yelin and colleagues highlight the persistent, heterogeneous, and recurring symptoms of long COVID. A Lancet Editorial asks for better research and care to avoid years of struggle for individuals with long COVID. We write following an international, multi-stakeholder forum, in which peoples' voices were central, to expand the call to action and to identify how we can prevent long COVID from becoming the long-lasting legacy of COVID-19.

On Dec 9–10, 2020, the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC), the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R) research funders group, and Long COVID Support, a global patient group, held the Long COVID Forum (appendix pp 1–2). We brought together people living with long COVID, interdisciplinary researchers, funders, public health experts, and policy makers, including WHO, in a global public forum to identify research gaps to inform urgent long COVID research and support priorities.

Our discussions, introduced by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, were built around three people-centred themes, identified by long COVID support groups: recognition, research, and rehabilitation. We heard from people living with long COVID from around the world, who asked: what is causing my illness? What can I do to recover? Why do I have long COVID when others recover quickly? How do I convince my doctor that what I am suffering from is real? How can others be prevented from getting long COVID? We explored existing evidence, including the recently funded research portfolio on long COVID that will contribute to the evidence body in the short to mid-term and updates from ongoing research from around the world. A complex, multifaceted condition involving a range of physical, cognitive, and psychological symptoms was described, affecting adults and children in different settings, with occupational, economic, and social implications. Such complexity requires a multidisciplinary, globally coordinated approach that supports harmonised, large-scale studies that have the power to provide robust evidence to inform policy and patient-centred care and support to improve long COVID outcomes.

The structure of the forum facilitated the identification of research gaps (appendix p 3). The core message was the need to expand research beyond hospitalised patients to include those who experienced COVID-19 in the community, children, vulnerable communities, and resource-constrained populations to improve equity in access to research and reduce health inequalities.

This online publication has been corrected. The corrected version first appeared at thelancet.com/infection on February 16, 2021