Living with COVID-19

International News

‘No one is talking about it’: the cruelty of long Covid in the global south.

“When people die, that gets into the media. But chronic, disabling conditions do not – and maybe that’s the cruelty of being in a less developed country.” (2023, the Guardian)

Creating a better post-pandemic future for adolescents with disabilities. (2023, BMJ)

What Makes Brain Fog So Unforgiving “Brain fog isn’t like a hangover or depression. It’s a disorder of executive function that makes basic cognitive tasks absurdly hard.” (2022)

If You’re Suffering After Being Sick With Covid It’s Not Just in Your Head. After the 1918-19 influenza pandemic:

‘Many who survived became enervated and depressed. They developed tremors and nervous complications. Similar waves of illness had followed the 1889 pandemic, with one report noting thousands “in debt and unable to work” and another describing people left “pale, listless and full of fears.”’ (2022, NYT)

Long covid sufferers share stories of chronic fatigue, other symptoms. Five profiles from around the world. (2022, Washington Post)

Long covid could change the way we think about disability (2022, Washington Post)

Many Long COVID Patients Identify as Disabled and Feelings Are Complicated (2022, Verywell Mind)

Pandemics disable people — the history lesson that policymakers ignore Why the complacency over possible long-term effects of COVID-19? (2022, Nature)

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India

Covid scare keeps blind students away from school (2022, Deccan Herald)

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Norway

When you talk about "those who are going to die from something anyway" then you are talking about me. "Aren't I, a human being, worth more than the local pub?" (in Norwegian, google translate makes sense, 2022)

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United Kingdom

‘A 30-second walk would exhaust me beyond reason’: Natacha’s life with long Covid. (Jun, the Guardian)

Two-thirds of UK workers with long Covid have faced unfair treatment, says report (based on survey of 3,000). (2023, the Guardian)

Living with long Covid series exploring the “millions of lives impacted by long Covid” (2022, the Guardian)

Doctors with long Covid say they have been denied disability benefits. (2022, the Guardian)

Alarm after EHRC says long Covid should not be treated as disability (2022, the Guardian)

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Canada

COVID: 1 in 9 Canadian adults have had long-term symptoms. “Almost 80 per cent of those people with long-term symptoms have them for six months or more, the report said, including 42 per cent who had them for a year or more.” (2023, CTV News)

High-risk Canadians feel forgotten as rules lift: “Can't we have lives too?” (2022, CTV News)

COVID concerns of disabled people multiply as health protocols lifted (2022, Policy Options Politiques)

Chronic exhaustion, derailed lives and no way out. This is long COVID. (2022, Maclean's)

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United States

Biden Dialed Back Covid Safety—Then Got It “The president’s diagnosis is a wake-up call to wider public health failures he should address.” (Jul, Mother Jones)

Masks Are a Symbol of Solidarity. “Mask bans are ostensibly about public safety. The result would be disastrous for public health—but it goes beyond that, too.” (Jun, The Nation)

1,374 Days My life with long covid. (2023, NYT)

NYC Has Left People With Long COVID Behind Living with long COVID in NYC means living an increasingly lonely existence. (2023, Hell Gate)

Long COVID Is Being Erased—Again What was once outright denial has morphed into a subtler dismissal. (2023, The Atlantic)

Long Covid disabled them. Then they met a 'broken' Social Security disability process. (2023, CNN Business)

The Long COVID Survival Guide How to Take Care of Yourself and What Comes Next, a “patient-to-patient guide for people wliving with long COVID”. (2022, Experiment Publishing)

Long Covid is keeping millions out of work “Fixing the labor shortage means treating, accommodating and mitigating long Covid. It also requires building a society in which disabled people can participate.” (2022, the Guardian)

Long COVID Has Forced the U.S. to Take Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Seriously. “At best, most medical professionals know nothing about ME/CFS [myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome]; at worst, they tell patients that their symptoms are psychosomatic, anxiety-induced, or simply signs of laziness. [...] Every ME/CFS patient I’ve talked with predicted long COVID’s arrival well before most doctors or even epidemiologists started catching up.” (2022, The Atlantic) See also Ed Yong's reflections on reporting on long COVID and other chronic illnesses in a sensitive way.

Biden's long Covid plan is a good start. But it needs to go further. (2022, Stat)

Black Covid long-haulers say doctors dismissed their symptoms, so now they’re relying on one another for support. (2022, NBC News)

Long Covid keeps millions of Americans out of workforce. Recent research estimates that 2 to 4 million people are out of work due to Covid symptoms after the infection period. (2022, CNBC)

Many try to return to normal from COVID, but disabled people face a different reality “All we're really asking for is for a masking policy that will allow us to be able to go to the store, to go to the doctor, go get the mail, without risking [our health],” (2022, NPR)

Rest May Be the Best Treatment for Long COVID. Our Disability Policies Should Reflect That. “The continuing crisis around long COVID should inspire policymakers to embrace a more flexible frame of reference around what it means to be disabled, and to design more generous short-term disability policies, including a federal short-term disability benefit. Allowing long haulers to rest in the short term might help them avoid years or decades of significant, often disabling long-term health consequences.” (2022, TCF)

Patients with long covid symptoms face tough disability benefit fights: "Patients and doctors say safety net is unprepared for novel claims stemming from the pandemic". (2022, Washington Post)

The Millions of People Stuck in Pandemic Limbo 'Each individual infection is its own high-stakes gamble. [...] Over the past year, as many Americans reveled in their restored freedoms, many immunocompromised people felt theirs shrinking.':

'As the coronavirus moves from a furious boil to a gentle simmer, many immunocompromised people (like everyone else) hope to slowly expand their life again. But right now, “it’s like asking someone who cannot swim to jump into the ocean instead of trying a pool,”' (2022, The Atlantic)

At-Home Coronavirus Tests Are Inaccessible to Blind People: “It’s your personal health information, you should be the first to know." (2022, NYT)

What Does ‘Living With Covid-19’ Mean For Disabled And Chronically Ill People? A useful balanced view of pessimistic and hopeful outcomes. (2021, Forbes)

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Australia

Sick and Tired: casting a long shadow. Inquiry into long COVID and repeated COVID infections. (2023, Parliament of Australia)

Covid-related staff shortages in Australian disability sector leave some without vital services (2022, the Guardian)

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New Zealand

For those of us with disabilities, lockdown won’t end as long as Covid strategies leave us behind (2021, the Guardian)

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