The Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor & Pensions) Committee has announced the hearing “Addressing Long Covid: Advancing Research and Improving Patient Care,” taking place Thursday, January 18, 2024 at 7 am PT/10 am ET.
The hearing will feature testimony from patients, care providers and researchers, and is a rare opportunity to get the issue of Long Covid in front of powerful legislators.
Solve has submitted an official statement to the Committee (read it here), and we’ll be live-tweeting the event from the Solve X/Twitter account.
Watch the hearing here.
How do we, as a patient community, best use this opportunity to advance the cause?
- Send an email to your Senator asking them to attend the Senate HELP Committee meeting (see sample email below).
- Tune in and live tweet! During the hearing, use your social media presence to ping legislators that this is important and needs their attention! Live social media will drive a lot of media attention.
- Follow up after the hearing with the members who asked good questions, thank them for their leadership, and encourage them to keep going
- Submit comments for the hearing record. The hearing record is open for about a week following the hearing. Draft a statement for the record and ask your member to submit it.
Find contact info for your rep here, and then use this sample letter to send to Senators:
Dear Senator LAST NAME,
My name is FULL NAME and I am a voter in YOUR STATE. I am writing to strongly encourage you to attend the upcoming Senate HELP committee hearing on Long COVID. As someone who has been impacted by post-infection disease, I can tell you firsthand that this is a public health crisis that needs immediate action. The government response to Long COVID and other post-infection diseases is abysmal and this lack of response has cost the economy trillions in lost economic productivity for decades.
This is my primary voting issue and I will be watching the upcoming hearing and the committee’s subsequent actions closely. I hope that you will participate, learn, and act with the immediacy this crisis demands.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME
City, state zip code
