The problem of long/post-COVID in expert assessments

Abstract

Assessing long/post-COVID syndrome (PCS) following an infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus2 (SARS-CoV-2) is amultidisciplinary challenge due to the diverse and complex symptoms. Besides discipline-specific evaluation of infection-related organ damage, the main issue is expert objectivity and causality assessment regarding subjective symptoms. The consequences of long/PCS raise questions of insurance rights in all fields of law. In cases of persistent impairment of performance, determining reduction in earning capacity is crucial for those affected. Recognition as an occupational disease (BK no.3101) is vital for employees in healthcare and welfare sectors, along with occupational accident recognition and assessing the illness's consequences, including the reduction in earning capacity (MdE) in other sectors or work areas. Therefore, expert assessments of illness consequences and differentiation from previous illnesses or damage disposition are necessary in all areas of law, individually based on corresponding organ manifestations in medical fields and interdisciplinarily for complex late sequelae, for instance, by internists with appropriate qualifications for pulmonary or cardiac manifestations and neurologists, psychiatrists, and neuropsychologists for neurological and psychiatric manifestations, etc.