Literature update ViVa week 15-2026

1. Long COVID research needs patient peer review – not just patient quotes In a Lancet Infectious Diseases Comment, the authors argue that long COVID research systematically incorporates patient expertise via routine patient review of all manuscripts in the field. The authors emphasize that long COVID is a highly prevalent, infection-associated chronic condition with major disability and economic impact, and that patients have already driven much of the conceptual and empirical progress, including defining the condition and generating seminal epidemiological and mechanistic work. Drawing on analogies with HIV/AIDS and myalgia encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome, they highlight how exclusion of patient expertise leads to category errors (for example, conflating fatigue with post-exertional malaise) and misaligned research questions. They propose journal-level structural incentives: mandatory patient review for long COVID submissions, clear labelling of such review, and publication of patient reviews alongside articles. To make this feasible and equitable, they recommend creating diverse...