- Today from 3-5 pm EST, a group of people with Long Covid have organized a Long Covid Moonshot telethon to call elected officials and demand $1 billion a year for Long Covid. The telethon was inspired by a recent Nature op-ed by Lisa McKorkell of Patient-Led Research Collaborative and UCSF researcher Michael Peluso, which argued that “investing US$1 billion every year for the next ten years into long COVID research could improve the lives of millions and save trillions in economic costs.”
- Long Covid Action Project has initiated a letter-writing campaign through Action Network that demands US$28 billion in Long Covid funding per year, citing Harvard University economist David Cutler. The action also demands that Long Covid be declared a national emergency, mandating SARS-CoV-2 wastewater tracking, and clean air laws, among other demands. Learn more and send a letter here.
- A new qualitative study from the Patient-Led Research Collaborative, “Return-to-work with long COVID: An Episodic Disability and Total Worker Health® analysis,” was published in Social Science and Medicine last week. The study found many economic and medical barriers to returning to work with Long Covid. It is “critical for workplaces to develop supports for workers with disabilities, especially in the context of “mass-disabling” events like the COVID-19 Pandemic,” the paper’s authors conclude.
- A recent study in Nature Cardiovascular Research found that SARS-CoV-2 can directly infect the arteries of the heart, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.“This is just one more study that demonstrates how the virus both infects and causes inflammation in many cells and tissues throughout the body. Ultimately, this is information that will inform future research on both acute and Long COVID,” said Michelle Olive of the Basic and Early Translational Research Program at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) said in an NIH news release.
- Long Covid Justice and Trans Equity are co-hosting a free virtual event tomorrow, Wednesday, November 13 at 5:30 pm EST, titled “Long Covid is a Trans Issue,” which will discuss why disability justice is essential to trans liberation. The talk is moderated by Cecilia Gentili, the founder of Transgender Equity Consulting, and features a performance by poet and disability activist Kay Ulanday Barrett. Sari L. Reisner, Director of Transgender Research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, will discuss their research about Covid-19 risk in transgender and gender diverse communities. Also on the panel is J.D. Davids, co-founder of Long Covid Justice. Sign up for the event here.
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