{"id":182925,"date":"2022-03-17T07:22:53","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T11:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=182925"},"modified":"2022-03-14T10:30:23","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T14:30:23","slug":"long-covid-leaves-newly-disabled-people-facing-old-barriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2022\/03\/long-covid-leaves-newly-disabled-people-facing-old-barriers\/","title":{"rendered":"Long COVID Leaves Newly Disabled People Facing Old Barriers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Up to\u00a0one-third of COVID-19 survivors<\/a>\u00a0will acquire the condition known as\u00a0long or long-haul COVID-19<\/a>. The American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation estimates that long COVID will add as many as\u00a022 million individuals<\/a>\u00a0to the U.S. population of disabled people.<\/p>\n

I am a\u00a0sociologist and researcher<\/a>\u00a0focusing on disability. I am aware of the challenges awaiting newly disabled people living with what scientists call post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection, a condition in which someone with COVID-19 continues to have symptoms for weeks or months after infection. One of those challenges is qualifying for\u00a0Social Security Supplemental Income<\/a>, the program that provides financial support to disabled people with limited resources.<\/p>\n

To receive support, applicants generally must show that they have a condition that greatly limits their ability to work. The program routinely denied the majority of applicants before the pandemic. Between 2009 and 2018, the program denied\u00a066% of applicants<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the impact of long COVID, a newly discovered condition, is difficult to measure. Its symptoms are difficult to prove, varying in type, intensity and duration, between individuals or over time in the same person.<\/p>\n

Survival at a Price<\/strong><\/p>\n

While most people recover from their initial acute infection, some survivors experience continued or newly developed symptoms.\u00a0Long COVID symptoms<\/a>\u00a0can include shortness of breath, fatigue and brain problems, such as difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions.<\/p>\n

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines disability as \u201cany\u00a0condition of the body or mind<\/a>\u00a0that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities and interact with the world around them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long COVID sufferers report lingering symptoms that are\u00a0seriously debilitating<\/a>. They tell researchers that the condition makes it\u00a0hard to live their lives<\/a>\u00a0as they had before the illness. Some patients describe needing hours of\u00a0extra sleep after standing<\/a>\u00a0or walking a short distance. One study showed\u00a0cognitive deficits<\/a>, or \u201cbrain fog,\u201d in patients with long COVID. They had poor recall ability or were slow in processing information. These problems, they told researchers, limited their capacity to work.<\/p>\n

A 2021 study of long COVID patients in the UK found that\u00a028% were out of work<\/a>\u00a0because of their condition. Another study showed that\u00a046% reduced their work hours<\/a>\u00a0because of long COVID symptoms.<\/p>\n

Undefined and Indeterminate<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although the World Health Organization has issued a\u00a0definition of long COVID<\/a>, the U.S. medical community has not defined it, especially the \u201clong\u201d part. In fact, in a study that has not yet been peer-reviewed, researchers estimated that approximately\u00a043% of COVID-19 survivors<\/a>\u00a0may experience long COVID, which the study defined as having symptoms lasting 28 days or more. In another study, half of COVID-19 survivors reported\u00a0symptoms beyond six months<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But since long COVID symptoms involve different systems in the body, and there is no simple way to test for it, getting a diagnosis\u00a0can be difficult<\/a>. This adds an extra challenge to qualifying for Social Security.<\/p>\n

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute, previously noted\u00a0decades of underinvestment<\/a>\u00a0in the Social Security Administration before the pandemic. The institute is now\u00a0calling for renewed investment<\/a>\u00a0to cope with rising numbers of disabled people.<\/p>\n

It is also hard to predict which COVID-19 patients will develop long COVID, or predict the long-term outcomes for those who do. Greater likelihood of severe disease has been found to correlate with a higher risk of\u00a0long COVID<\/a>. Complicating matters, however, is the fact that long COVID can emerge from\u00a0relatively mild cases<\/a>\u00a0as well.<\/p>\n

Unpredictable and Uncertain<\/strong><\/p>\n

Symptoms seen in patients with long COVID look a lot like symptoms of other\u00a0hard-to-diagnose<\/a>\u00a0and disabling conditions. One reason may be the\u00a0molecular and physiological similarities<\/a>\u00a0researchers recently found between long COVID and diseases like multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and\u00a0lupus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Long COVID appears to be the newest in a long line of\u00a0\u201cinvisible\u201d or episodic conditions<\/a>\u00a0not immediately diagnosed as disabilities. They include fibromyalgia, Lyme disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.<\/p>\n

People with fibromyalgia, for example, often struggle with\u00a0symptoms similar<\/a>\u00a0to long COVID, including fatigue or thinking difficulties. Despite a history dating back to the 19th century, the criteria for diagnosing fibromyalgia have existed only since 1990. It remains a controversial illness with few accepted treatments, but that began to change as patients\u00a0shared their experiences<\/a>\u00a0with the condition. Nevertheless, people with conditions like these cope with doctors, social workers and others who might assume that their\u00a0illness isn\u2019t real<\/a>, and they\u00a0face obstacles<\/a>\u00a0obtaining financial support, housing and responsive health care.<\/p>\n

Disbelief and Denial\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Currently,\u00a0approximately 8 million<\/a>\u00a0people receive Social Security Supplemental Income. But surveys show the Social Security Administration\u00a0still denies<\/a>\u00a0many applicants, which studies have linked to stereotypes about disabled people as \u201cconning the system<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

A February 2021 study showed that negative attitudes toward people with significant disabilities are common\u00a0among health care providers<\/a>, affecting the ability of those with long COVID to get the care they need. Speaking of care, research on long COVID has led to proposed\u00a0treatment guidelines<\/a>, which promise to help people live better with the condition.<\/p>\n

In another promising development, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice\u00a0recently announced<\/a>\u00a0that long COVID can qualify as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.<\/p>\n

This means that those with long COVID can qualify for\u00a0community resources<\/a>. Those still in the workforce can get employment-related\u00a0reasonable accommodations<\/a>, such as flexible work times and remote work. For now, that\u2019s all they can count on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Originally published in The Conversation.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Negative attitudes toward people with significant disabilities are common among health care providers, affecting the ability of those with long COVID to get the care they need<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":182926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,2213,2235],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1902],"class_list":["post-182925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-coronavirus","category-today-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 05:41:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182925"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182927,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182925\/revisions\/182927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/182926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182925"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=182925"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=182925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}