Thank you so much.
I think what's really important to remember is that we're all Canadians. We all need support together. We need to support one another. As we said at the beginning of the pandemic, no Canadian will be left behind. I think we need to honour that and address the issue of people suffering with long COVID and really support their needs financially, with respect to getting access to care and definitely by trying to get to the bottom to figure out the underlying mechanisms of what's causing this disease and these terrible symptoms that people are dealing with. People really are losing their lives. It's quite a serious issue, and what's terrifying is that it's so unknown to such a large percentage of the population that this could possibly be an outcome of having COVID. People really need to protect themselves.
I think messaging is really important with public health to help people understand what we're going through, to deal with our situations with compassion and to really want to help one another to get through this situation. There is strength in numbers, and we are only going to get through this together. Fantastic outcomes can come from new discoveries with respect to chronic illnesses that people have been suffering from for years on end in other communities because there are many aspects that are overlapping with other illnesses in different communities. This research could be game-changing for millions of people. Funding for clinical research is important as is support for long-haulers so they can live and recover and get back to being productive citizens of society. We all just want to get back to work. We want to enjoy the things in life that we used to enjoy. We want to have relationships with our families and live a meaningful life and just recover and be believed and supported.
Thank you.