This week, New York Times writer Peter Coy’s piece, “Pushing ‘Long Covid’ Sufferers Too Hard Could Cause Them to Crash,” cited our recently released whitepaper, Long Covid’s impact on adult Americans: early indicators estimating prevalence and cost.
Whitepaper co-author and Solve M.E. Vice President of Advocacy and Engagement Emily Taylor told Coy, “Long Covid is not entirely new…Numerous studies and anecdotal evidence show that the harder you as an individual push through your symptoms and trigger flare-ups or crashes, the smaller your window for recovery and the more likely your symptoms will become permanent.”
I was very lucky at the beginning of my illness to have a primary who told me not to push myself and family who were (are) supportive. My primary knew nothing about ME/CFS (and didn't even have a name to pin it to) but had seen a few patients like me crash and burn. So she advised me to be careful upfront and supported me with documentation. Over the years, she learned about ME/CFS with me. My family told me to prioritize my health above money, ambition, career, etc. and told me they would support me financially were I to need it. My father dropped a friend who kept insinuating I was depressed. I owe the stable - if low - function I've had for 15 years largely in part to them. I wish everyone had the same support I did.
One of the most important lessons individuals with Long Covid can learn from the ME/CFS community is the importance of rest and pacing. “Overexertion can severely aggravate their conditions, whose symptoms may include fatigue and brain fog,” Coy writes.
In Coy’s piece, he echoes one of the major takeaways from our whitepaper: that barriers to accessing disability need to be lifted. Those suffering with Long Covid have good and bad days dictated by the severity of their symptoms, which often require flexible schedules and other accommodations. Our current disability system, however, does not provide the flexibility these individuals require. Disability should not be payment of last resort, and people should have the opportunity to return to disability as needed. Employers need incentives to keep workers on the job.
Read the New York Times piece in its entirety here, and read additional whitepaper coverage in Bloomberg Law, Reuters, Fortune, Yahoo! Finance, Star-Tribune, and Connecticut Insider.
As part of our work via the Solve Long Covid Initiative, Solve M.E. has partnered with the Global Interdependence Center to launch a year-long conference series, “Long Covid: Research, Policy, and Economic Impact,“ exploring the pandemic’s long-term healthcare, policy, and economic impact, specifically the implications of Long Covid.
We hope you’ll join us for the signature event of this series, an in-person conference in New York City on Thursday, May 19, 2022.
The purpose of our conference is to raise awareness of Long Covid by examining the science and research behind it. We hope you can join us through one of our registration options, including in-person or virtual attendance.
Learn more and register here.
