International long COVID Awareness Day 2025

International long COVID Awareness 2025
Monday 10 March – Saturday 15 March

During the week Emerge Australia invited the community to participate in a series of initiatives around the theme Shining a Light on long COVID – navigating the unknown – ME/CFS. With the aim of raising awareness and support for the long COVID and ME/CFS communities.

Imagine Podcast

Six episodes of our Imagine podcast were released during the week, encompassing compelling discussions with experts, patients, and advocates exploring the multifaceted impacts of long COVID and ME/CFS.

Guests included:

Dr Tess Ryan – Lecturer and project coordinator ACU
Dr Richard Schloeffel OAM – Former Medical Director Emerge Australia
Sarah Vizer – Author, speaker, coach
Barry – Living with long COVID and caring for his partner with ME/CFS
Plum Stone – Founder the Safer Air Project and living with Long COVID
Shiloh Moore – Advocate, writer, author, spiritual explorer

Symposium

On Wednesday, 12 March, CEO Anne Wilson was joined by experts and those with lived experience to talk about long COVID and share insights, information and respond to questions from the community. With over 200 attendees present this was our largest symposium to date.

The full recording is now available below and there was also a live X (formally Twitter) feed which can be viewed here.

Excellence in Media Awards

The finalists and winner of the Emerge Australia Awards for Excellence in Journalism were also announced during Awareness Week, we congratulate Hayley Gleeson as the winner of the Emerge Australia Media Awards for Excellence in Journalism for the exceptional article, “Too many children with long COVID are suffering in silence. Their greatest challenge? The myth that the virus is ‘harmless’ for kids.” Read all the finalist articles via the link below.

Online Symposium with Emerge Australia

Long COVID Awareness Week - 2pm Wednesday 12 March 2025

01 HOST

Anne Wilson

Chief Executive Officer, Emerge Australia

Anne is an accomplished NFP CEO with a former focus in respiratory and renal health, and a track record engaging stakeholders and building capacity across advocacy, education, research and service delivery.

Anne’s current focus is dedicated to empowering Australians impacted by ME/CFS and long COVID. A graduate of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business NFP Leadership Program, Anne’s qualifications span degrees in Human Services and Adolescent Health.

In 2008, Anne was recognised as the NFP Network Association CEO of the Year, and currently is Director and Secretary/Treasurer of the International Kidney Cancer Coalition.

02 Introducing

PROFESSOR DAVID PUTRINO

DIRECTOR OF REHABILITATION INNOVATION ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE MOUNT SINAI

David trained as a physiotherapist before completing a PhD in Neuroscience. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City and is the Nash Family Director of the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illness.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, David has been recognised globally as a leading expert in the assessment, treatment and underlying pathophysiology of long COVID. His team has managed the care of over 3000 people with long COVID and published multiple peer-reviewed scientific papers on the topic.

In 2019, he was named “Global Australian of the Year” for his contributions to healthcare.

03 Introducing

Associate Professor Bernard Shiu

Clinical Director of Banksia Medical Centre and Geelong Long COVID Clinic in Victoria

Associate Professor Bernard Shiu is the Clinical Director of Banksia Medical Centre and Geelong Long COVID Clinic in Victoria. He was recognized as the RACGP GP of the Year in 2020, and under his leadership, Banksia Medical Centre was awarded National RACGP General Practice of the Year in 2023.

With a strong clinical focus on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Long COVID, and other complex chronic conditions, Associate Professor Shiu is deeply committed to advancing patient care in these areas.

In addition to his clinical work, he is an experienced researcher and medical educator with extensive involvement in training both medical students, graduate candidates and healthcare professionals. He will be delivering the ME/CFS Clinical Education Program on behalf of Emerge Australia at the upcoming General Practitioner Conference and Exhibition (GPCE) in Sydney.

04 Introducing

Plum Stone

Founder the Safer Air Project, Living with long covid

Plum lives with long COVID and is joining us to share about her lived experience. She is also a policy and public affairs professional, who has specialised for the last 10 years in cancer and terminal illness policy.

It is this policy and patient advocacy experience, coupled with Plum’s lived experience with long COVID and a high-risk family, that has led her to found The Safer Air Project.

People living with chronic illnesses have always faced increased risks of poor health outcomes from infections, including through exposure to poor indoor air quality that can exacerbate their health conditions. These risks, which have increased since 2020, are not broadly recognised by society, marginalising many people, and highlighting a serious gap in our approach to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Plum believes we can change that now – by recognising that breathing safe air is an accessibility and inclusion issue and ensuring that indoor air is safe for everyone to breathe.

Read more about Plum and The Safer Air Project HERE.

05 Introducing

Eliza Charley

Actress, Writer, Producer, living with ME/CFS

Eliza Charley is an Australian actress, writer, and producer dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices, especially women and those living with chronic disease.

Known for feature films The Fort (2022) and Time Apart (2020), she also starred in award-winning short films The Falling (2016) and Sweat (2014). She has worked in Television both on screen Neighbours: Road Trip (2016) and in production behind the scenes Buying Blind (2018).

Eliza has more than 15 years lived experience with myalgic encephalomyelitis, first contracting the illness following a virus in 2009, and has traveled the world to receive treatment, meet with researchers, and collaborate on patient advocacy campaigns for ME, POTS, and long COVID.

Born in Melbourne, Australia to scientist parents, Professor Ros Gleadow and Professor Andrew Gleadow, Eliza blends her passion for science with a desire to see patient justice and improved policymaking at home and abroad. She now resides in Florence, Italy.