Declare Long Covid A National Emergency: “Moonshot Kills” / Long Covid Action Project
Long Covid Action Project [LCAP] activists Stephanie and Linda, along with journalist and LCAP founder Joshua Pribanic, join me in this impromptu interview to discuss the recent direct action Linda and Stephanie participated in at the Senate HELP Committee Hearing on January 18, ostensibly held to address the ongoing and growing Long Covid crisis in the United States.
This is the first in an ongoing series of interviews done in collaboration with journalist and LCAP founder and activist Joshua Pribanic to address the realities of what Long Covid is, and the action needed to address this issue comprehensively.
Over four years into the Covid-19 pandemic, an estimated 23+ million people in the United States are suffering from post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), a broad array of dozens of symptoms commonly called Long Covid. Similar to HIV/AIDS in its ability to damage the immune systems of those it infects, the largely unmitigated spread of SARS-CoV-2 is producing a health crisis of massive proportions and unprecedented scale, both nationally and globally
On January 18, there was a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions (HELP) ostensibly held to address this crisis. But, as Linda and Stephanie, two activists from the grassroots organization Long Covid Action Project—and by its founder, Joshua Pribanic—articulate in this interview, that not only did the aims of this hearing fall insultingly short of addressing the true severity of this issue, it obscures key aspects of the crisis. This is, in great part, why Stephanie and Linda felt compelled to disrupt this hearing, and to state LCAP’s demands before being swiftly removed by security.
“There is not a single face of Long Covid. Long Covid can be people in their prime, of working age. It can be people a little bit older. It could be people without any preexisting health conditions. It doesn’t discriminate in terms of who it strikes, and I think Congress needs to know that. It’s not the sick and the weak. It’s not middle-aged women only. It’s everybody. Until they pay attention to that, they will not be able to get a handle on the problem.”
- Linda, LCAP activist
Episode Notes:
Learn more about the Long Covid Action Project and how to participate.
Follow LCAP on Twitter/X @LongCovidAP
Read LCAP’s 11 demands to Congress.
The audio featured is from the Jan. 18 Senate HELP Committee Hearing.
