Shaista
Shaista is in her 40s and is Pakistani. She works full time as a journalist and a city councillor.
Shaista developed Covid symptoms in March, before Covid testing was available. When she did get tested, she came back negative for Covid. Shaista’s GP diagnosed her with Long Covid in January, but she has been unable to attend a long Covid clinic. Shaista was interviewed in April 2021.
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Shaista became aware of Covid in early 2020 by following articles in the news. While travelling with her mum to perform pilgrimage in February, she remembers seeing lots of people in the airport travelling to countries which may have been “entry points” for Covid. Shaista started to feel unwell at the time, and her symptoms developed into coughing and fatigue by March 2020. Later, Shaista’s symptoms included an eye infection and a fever, which came and went every few days.
As testing for Covid wasn’t publically available, Shaista phoned the NHS hotline where she felt “dismissed and not listened to”. Shaista explained that people of colour have historically been failed by the medical profession but was only told “that’s the best [the hotline] can offer at the moment”. When testing became available, Shaista tested negative but still suspected that she was unwell. She says the experience “felt like gaslighting”.
Shaista found that her GP was “very compassionate and very caring”, and in January 2021 they diagnosed Shaista with Long Covid. Despite being referred to a Long Covid clinic at the time, Shaista hadn’t received a referral from the clinic by June.
Shaista decided to “go public” with her diagnosis to raise awareness that “everyone’s Covid experience is unique” and found a number of friends had received the same diagnosis. She felt that the “rhetoric from the Government was disgraceful” and may explain some of the stigma surrounding Long Covid. She also points out the narrative in the media about Covid is “laced in racism and bigotry”, as the people most likely to be hurt by Covid are “blamed for spreading the disease”.
Shaista found that her physical and mental health were both affected when ten people she were connected to passed away due to Covid over the course of three days. Shaista feels that her mental health is now something she’s “really aware of more than any other time” and her “life has changed a lot”. She plans to “take each day as it comes” and thinks that addressing structural racism as well as building trust with healthcare professionals should be prioritised as part of recovering from the pandemic.
Shaista waited a long time for an occupational health service appointment. She was relieved when they explained to her bosses that she would need to go back to work gradually.
Shaista waited a long time for an occupational health service appointment. She was relieved when they explained to her bosses that she would need to go back to work gradually.
I was told that I needed a referral, and it would take a long time and I was like, well I don’t care how long it takes because I need to see occupational health so in after that I did, I was able to eventually get an appointment. It didn’t take as long as I thought it would and occupational health listened to me and said that any return to work has to be stagnated, it has to be a phased return to work. I have to work X number of hours a day over a period of time, over a month and they asked me to make sure, they told my work, my bosses basically that that’s what needed to happen so I was very relieved that I was able to see them but I, and my conversation with occupational health, they were telling me they’d been inundated with cases of Long Covid and they said that it was very stressful for them as well and it was very clear that they understood very clearly that workplaces are not understanding the magnitude of this and they don’t understand how to react to it.
Shaista’s mental health crashed when she had to deal with the deaths of family and friends whilst they had such extreme fatigue. The wider impact of Covid was distressing and devastating.
Shaista’s mental health crashed when she had to deal with the deaths of family and friends whilst they had such extreme fatigue. The wider impact of Covid was distressing and devastating.
So, I was extremely relieved to finally have a diagnosis and I did ask him, “What does post-infectious Covid mean? I know what the words post-infectious are, I know what the word Covid is,” but I said, “put these two words together, what does this mean for me?” And he said, “Well it’s too har-, too difficult and impossible almost to determine because everybody’s an individual and everyone’s impacted differently but he said to me that, you know, “You need some time off work. You need, you know, the fatigue is extreme, and it will be for a while, and you need to take care of yourself.” He was very compassionate and very caring and like I said, I know a lot of people do not have that relationship with their GPs, I’m very lucky that I do.
He referred me to a Long Covid clinic. He explained to me that it’s very hard to get access to one. He said, “I’ve referred you.” He said, “I can’t tell you how long it’s gonna be.” I still have not received a referral from the Long Covid clinic. This is now, we’re now in June. I was diagnosed in January.
So, the symptoms continued. The fatigue was extreme. I was sleeping all the time. I was out I was just out of it all the time. I was tired, I was coughing I just felt extremely unwell. I wasn’t able to talk very much. For some people that’s a blessing, not to have to list, not to hear me talk but there you go. So I was, just, I was not able to engage much or do much. I mentally, my mental health crashed.
At the same time, at the beginning of the pandemic I lost a cousin in Pakistan to Covid. And in one particular week in the space of 72 hours, I heard of ten people who are connected to me who had passed away of Covid across the coun-, across the UK. It was having a detrimental impact on my physical and mental health.
One of my dad’s closest friends a very dear Uncle to us, he passed away with Covid. He spent eight weeks in the hospital in [city] battling his life and he didn’t make it. It’s been very distressing for me and my family personally as I know it has been for lots and lots of people across our country, it’s been devastating. And so, the reason why I raised this, is on top of my own personal battle there were these other battles that were going on and all, if you piece it all together it was having a profound detrimental impact on me.
The consequences have been that I had to take two months off work which has impacted my livelihood obviously. Again, I’m very fortunate that I was able to do that. A lot of people are not able to do it. I have no choice to be honest with you but the same time there was an element of choice involved. There’s a lot of people who are not able to do this. I have nothing but respect for them having managed to just get through the day with a little support available is really quite incredible.
Shaista said she felt relieved and lucky to have been vaccinated. She said the vaccine roll-out was a testament to the scientists and NHS teams who had worked extremely hard on it.
Shaista said she felt relieved and lucky to have been vaccinated. She said the vaccine roll-out was a testament to the scientists and NHS teams who had worked extremely hard on it.
So, I was very pleased to be offered a vaccine, I had the Pfizer one, so I it was very straight forward. I feel very relieved to know that I’ve been vaccinated. I feel very relieved that my mum’s been vaccinated, my brother, my sister-in-law. I’m, the children obviously in my family have not been vaccinated. There’s information swirling around that potentially some young children will be asked to be vaccinated. We don’t know, we don’t have enough information.
I feel that the, the entire vaccine rollout is really a testament to the NHS the NHS that the government has spent decades dismantling and de-funding and I think it’s quite shameful that this all been described as being, the governments doing a wonderful job with vaccinations when they’re actually, it’s got nothing to do with the government. It’s to do with scientists who have worked incredibly hard and all the teams working with them and then the NHS which has rolled this vaccination out in an incredible way. So, I feel that like that narrative needs to also be reset because the narrative that’s out there, is not a truthful one.
And I felt extremely relieved, and it was very easy, and I found it to be very an emotional experience actually to be able to go and to get a vaccination for Covid knowing that there are, the vast majority of people in the world do not have the same access to vaccinations. They are unlikely to get access to vaccinations any time soon and very horrifically you know, their life chances are being impacted so I found, I found it to be a very emotional experience.
Shaista appreciated her GP explaining that Long Covid affects everyone differently. He gave her clear advice on how to manage her fatigue and referred her to a Long Covid clinic.
Shaista appreciated her GP explaining that Long Covid affects everyone differently. He gave her clear advice on how to manage her fatigue and referred her to a Long Covid clinic.
So, then I started getting worse again. So, December, I really crashed my energy levels disappeared, my coughing was non-stop. I was coughing all the time. I went for another, I went for a Covid test on Christmas day, it’s how I roll, and [laughs] came back negative again and then this time my GP asked me again, I called my GP, I was very distressed because I just couldn’t understand what was going on. So, I explained to him, “I’ve had a Covid test”, gone through all the symptoms again. He asked me to come back for some more blood tests, so I went through the blood tests and then he sent me to hospital for a chest X-ray and then I had an ECG. I had a, and then basically in January, I was told by my GP that I had post-infectious Covid, and I was relieved to finally have a diagnosis and I was, he said to me there was no way of determining how long I’ve had Covid, but he believes I’ve had it for a very long time.
Because he’s a good GP he listens to his patients so I, we went through the timeline again and he said, “It’s very likely that that’s when, February’s when you started developing it,” and he said that “Covid has a way of, it infects everybody differently and, you know, but the body masks Covid in different ways.”
So, I was extremely relieved to finally have a diagnosis and I did ask him, “What does post-infectious Covid mean? I know what the words post-infectious are, I know what the word Covid is,” but I said, “put these two words together, what does this mean for me?” And he said, “Well it’s too difficult and impossible almost to determine because everybody’s an individual and everyone’s impacted differently but he said to me that, you know, “You need some time off work. You need, you know, the fatigue is extreme, and it will be for a while, and you need to take care of yourself.” He was very compassionate and very caring and like I said, I know a lot of people do not have that relationship with their GPs, I’m very lucky that I do. He referred me to a Long Covid clinic. He explained to me that it’s very hard to get access to one. He said, “I’ve referred you.” He said, “I can’t tell you how long it’s gonna be.” I still have not received a referral from the Long Covid clinic. This is now, we’re now in June. I was diagnosed in January.