Lisa McCorkell is an American

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

researcher, policy analyst and

Long COVID Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

advocate who co-founded the Patient-Led Research Collaborative (PLRC). McCorkell co-founded PLRC together with Hannah Davis and three others with Long COVID, several of whom had prior research experience. They were frustrated with the lack of research on long-term impacts of a

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

infection in the early days of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. PLRC would publish the first major long COVID study. She was named one of ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

''’s 10 in 2022, recognising her as a person "who shaped science in 2022".

Education and personal life

McCorkell studied Political Science for her Bachelor at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, and obtained her Masters in Public Policy from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. , she worked as a policy analyst at the California Department of Social Services, on CalFresh. She has done research on the topic of employment and labor, such as a study on the effect of stable scheduling for retail workers. McCorkell got a mild bout of COVID-19 in March 2020. By August, she had started to feel better and joined an exercise class, which resulted in an emergency room visit due to breathing problems. She was later diagnosed with

postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is a condition characterized by an abnormally large increase in heart rate upon sitting up or standing. POTS is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system that can lead to a variety of symptoms, ...

and also has had

post-exertional malaise Post-exertional malaise (PEM), sometimes referred to as post-exertional symptom exacerbation (PESE) or post-exertional neuroimmune exhaustion (PENE), is a worsening of symptoms that occurs after minimal exertion. It is the hallmark symptom of m ...

that makes other symptoms worse.

Patient-Led Research Collaborative

After reading an article on Long COVID by Fiona Lowenstein in ''The New York Times'', McCorkell and other future founders of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative (PLRC) joined the Body Politic COVID-19 Support Group. A team was formed to study Long COVID. Gina Assaf launched an initial survey in April 2024 and McCorkell helped analyse what would be the first research published on Long COVID a few weeks later. The survey highlighted that neurological problems were common in COVID. A second survey detailed how symptoms evolved over a period of 7 months. McCorkell co-founded the PLRC with four other women with long COVID. The organisation does research itself, but also gives advice on how to design research and funds studies into long COVID and other chronic conditions. In 2021, McCorkell testified before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Health. McCorkell left the PLRC in 2025.

Selected publications

* Davis HE, Assaf GS, McCorkell L, Wei H, Low RJ, Re'em Y, Redfield S, Austin JP, Akrami A. Characterizing long COVID in an international cohort: 7 months of symptoms and their impact. ''eClinicalMedicine''. 38:101019 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101019 * Davis HE, McCorkell L, Vogel JM, Topol EJ. Long COVID: major findings, mechanisms, and recommendations. ''Nature Reviews Microbiology''. 21(3): 133-146 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-022-00846-2 * Al-Aly Z, Davis H, McCorkell L, Soares L, Wulf-Hanson S, Iwasaki A, Topol EJ. Long COVID science, research and policy. ''Nature Medicine.'' volume 30, pages 2148–2164 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-03173-6

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCorkell, Lisa Living people American health activists University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni COVID-19 researchers American women activists American medical researchers American women medical researchers

Education and personal life

Patient-Led Research Collaborative

Selected publications

See also

References