Long Covid and Postviral Ethics
Why Postviral Ethics?
I have coined the term "Postviral Ethics" to call attention to the fact that Long Covid, and Post Acute Infection Syndromes (PAIS) are both (unrecognised) ethical and medical crises. Not only have patients been institutionally abandoned by a political and societal turn towards normality. They also suffer from medical neglect and even abuse, social isolation and stigmatisation, as well as political marginalisation and denial. A postviral ethics thus goes beyond the reductionist view wherein ethics is solely conceived as the relation between the medical research(er) and the patient, and instead regards such interactions as grounded in social and political contexts. Postviral Ethics is thus a social ethics.
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Current Themes
I am working on several research themes within Postviral Ethics, also in my capacity as the Leader of the Ethics Platform of the Post Covid Network Netherlands (PCNN). These themes include, but are not limited to:
1) An ethical analysis of the BioPsychoSocial (BPS) model, which resulted in the medical harms of the psychologisation and physical deterioration of PAIS patients.
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2) An social ethical analysis of the consequences of a political return to post-pandemic normal, including the politics of Long Covid denialism, the lack of institutional solidarity as well as the ethics of prevention/care.
3) A comparative ethical analysis of the existential and social experiences of Long Covid patients in both the Netherlands and Germany. Here I particularly explore the existential impact of Long Covid and PAIS on individuals and their surroundings.
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4) An ethical analysis of patient mobilisation and participation, particularly in relation to both their physical exertion intolerance and the social-political constellation of denialism.
On 3 February 2025 I organised a international workshop on Postviral Ethics through the Radboud Center for Philosophy and Society (RCPS) and  Post-COVID Network Netherlands (PCNN). All the details and recordings of the workshop can be found here. This workshop was the very first workshop that addressed postviral ethics as a topic. It not only discussed the various urgent ethical challenges Long Covid and PAIS pose for patients, medical professionals, politicians and social policy makers, but in doing so also highlighted the need for the development of a postviral ethics as a specialized but interdisciplinary area within philosophical ethics as such. The workshop highlighted the necessity of regarding Long Covid and other Post Acute Infectious Syndromes (PAIS) as both a medical and ethical emergency. More workshops and research initiatives will follow from this event. Researchers, patients, policymakers and other societal stakeholders from within and beyond the Netherlands that are interested in these initiatives are encouraged to get in touch (see about/contact page).
What is Long Covid?
Long Covid (also often referred to as Post-Covid) entails a wide range of disabling symptoms that last for more than 3 months after the initial (often mild) SARS-CoV-2 infection. These symptoms are often severely disabling, leaving patients house- and bedbound for months and even years end. There is, as to date, no medical cure.
Though more women tend to be affected, everyone (including all ages) can get Long Covid. Reinfections not only structurally worsen the condition of existing patients, but also increase the risk of Long Covid for everyone. Since, Covid is airborne, prevention measures such as clean air, ventilation and the normalisation of FFP2 masks in crowded indoor spaces.​
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Though biomedical research into Long Covid remains underfunded, the medical mechanisms of Long Covid are increasingly recognised – including its co-morbidities with Postural Orthostatic Tachyardia Syndrome (POTS), Mastcell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (MECFS). Long Covid is part of what is called a Post Acute Infection Syndrome (PAIS), a range of illnesses such as chronic Lyme disease, Qfever, EBV, HIV amongst others.
© 2025 by Vivienne Matthies-Boon.
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