Dr Stephen Griffin, virologist and member of Independent SAGE, talks us through the workings of antivirals - both in acute COVID-19 and in Long Covid.  He explains what antivirals do - suppressing the virus rather than removing it from our systems - and suggests that the use of one course of individual antivirals might not be the holy grail that Long Covid sufferers are hoping.  We talk viral persistence versus autoimmunity, the action of vaccines, and whether monoclonal antibodies could be useful.