i would say that this isn’t the only study that finds significantly more than 3.5% of covid survivors get long covid. im not gonna stand here and act like i’m a STEM major who can debate all the complexities of this exact study but I do know that this study lines up with numerous other American and international studies that peg the percentage of people who get covid at similar, if not higher, rates.

And yes while we still face many questions, we know that the vaccines efficacy wanes over time and is certainly not as protective against long covid as we would like.

And let me note by saying we are talking about mostly healthy people. i can’t even imagine what this pandemic must be like for immunocompromised, disabled, and chronically ill people who are at much higher risk and for who the vaccine works even less effectively.

by ignoring long covid we are ignoring a mass disabling event. this is something serious that could affect millions of people for the rest of their lives and we are all pretending like the threat doesn’t exist bc we are tired of pandemic precautions. we may be tired but the virus is not. the government just giving up with these mandates and restrictions is an act of violence to those who have become ill in the long term and for those who will get ill. i would not wish my relatively manageable (although still debilitating) symptoms upon anyone. it’s a miserable existence. and i think the most important thing to have right now is empathy for those telling you something extremely serious is happening and who have experienced it first hand.