John Monash Scholars join forces to tackle Long COVID — with promising future applications in Australia

2 June 2025 — John Monash Scholars Prof James Daniell and A/Prof Amy McLennan are behind a major study quantifying the costs of Long COVID and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) to society, estimating a staggering €63 billion (AUD$110 billion) impact in Germany for 2024 alone — and laying the foundation for an approach they hope will soon be applied in Australia.

The study was led by Prof James Daniell (2009 John Monash Scholar) through his risk analytics company Risklayer, which he established based on his John Monash Scholarship-funded doctoral research at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.

The team worked in close collaboration with the ME/CFS Research Foundation to apply Risklayer’s cutting-edge disaster and risk modelling approach to chronic disease for the first time, in order to assess workforce losses, healthcare costs and the broader social and economic impacts of two significant post-viral illnesses.

When released in mid-May 2025, the report was covered in at least 15 major German news outlets. Dorothee Bär, Germany's new Federal Research Minister, has since publicly committed to expanding research efforts into Long COVID and ME/CFS.

A/Prof Amy McLennan (2009 John Monash Scholar), a medical anthropologist with a doctorate from the University of Oxford, joined the project to help navigate the complex evidence base surrounding chronic conditions.

“Medical anthropology gave me skills to do impactful research in areas of medicine and healthcare where there's a lot of ambiguity,” Amy says.

“In the case of Long COVID, ambiguity is linked to poor-quality data and evidence, contested categories and classifications, incommensurate forms of evidence, absence of historical evidence base, new sources of expertise, and emergent properties of the disease.”

She adds, “Interestingly, James' models are designed to work in areas of ambiguity too, so we're well-suited — he comes from the data modelling and analytics angle, and I come at it from the human, convening, contextualising, understanding cultural assumptions angle.”

The pair believe their work could be valuable for health policy and research in Australia — where Long COVID and ME/CFS continue to affect thousands. While Germany offered strong institutional and philanthropic interest, including support from the ME/CFS Research Foundation, the two Scholars are eager to see similar momentum here.

“We want to establish a similar study in Australia and are actively looking for opportunities to do so,” Amy says.“Both with regard to this model and other applications of our collaborative approach.”

The collaboration reflects one of the strengths of the John Monash Scholarship and Leadership Academy program: the relationships it fosters between Scholars from diverse disciplines and backgrounds. For Amy and James, it began more than a decade ago while studying in Europe and crossing paths at the Oxford John Monash Scholars’ Symposium.

“When this Long COVID project came up through James's networks, James asked me to come on board,” Amy says.

“He could see I could add value — I didn't quite understand how but ran with it, and it turns out he was right! It also gave me a chance to see how he does his work, appreciate just how much of a genius he is, and develop a shared line of sight to future collaborations.”

Now both based in Adelaide, the two Scholars continue to work together on translating their research for impact — and bringing home an approach that could change how Australia understands and responds to chronic disease and a range of other issues.