Turning a blind eye to a patient battling long haul Covid is like turning a blind eye to the future. If you neglect to recognize the lapse in medical care faced by chronically ill patients, then you neglect to prevent yet another escalating health crisis riddled with discrimination, gaslighting and absent medical support for those desperately in need, including preventable deaths due to worsening undiagnosed complications.
You are enabling the same thing that happened at the start of this pandemic (disbelief that it would become a large-scale issue and therefore being complacent with inaction in setting up procedures and policies proactively) to happen at the start of a secondary pandemic comprised of an increasingly chronically ill populace.
You don’t have to sit back and wait for this to hit your home. You can support the many patients trying to advocate for the greater good of all, and can do so in a multitude of ways.
Contact your Federal representatives and demand “long haul Covid’ research studies and health care policy changes: www.usa.gov/elected-officials
Call your local representatives and demand that your local communities support the establishment of #covid19 rehabilitation clinics (to diagnose and treat survivors before more damage is done) to ensure that this doesn’t further impact local families, employers and economies: www.usa.gov/local-governments and https://www.usa.gov/state-governor
Donate to volunteer-run support groups in need of funding to continue supporting future waves of acute and chronic patients: https://www.gofundme.com/f/body-politic-covid19-support-group
Talk to your loved ones about how our current fixation on “gross medicine” doesn’t capture “microscopic/cellular medicine”, causing chronically ill patients (both past and present) years of neglect and indescribable physical, mental, emotional, financial and legal hardships.
And share.
The deaths associated with the acute phase of Covid-19 are extremely tragic and staggering. The ‘living deaths’ associated with the chronic phase of Covid-19 show the increasingly dramatic and serious toll of this virus on our citizens, communities and countries.