I was recently interviewed by Annah Chaya, Journalism and Criminal Justice Major at Northeastern University, for an article on Long Covid. She has graciously allowed me to repost it here, in its entirety.
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John Bullock, a long-time employee of Healthcare Services Group, Inc., a company that manages laundry, housekeeping and dining for nursing, independent living, assisted living and hospital facilities, never expected how the aftermath of COVID-19 would disrupt every aspect of his life.
According to court documents filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Bullock experienced “long Covid” symptoms after his positive diagnosis which when coupled with a prior back injury he received on the job, led to restrictions in “what he had to lift, limiting his traveling to 1 hour trips, and allowing him to service his clients and DM’s [district managers] remotely.”
Healthcare Services Group, Inc., or HCSG, responded in turn by allegedly discriminating against Bullock “based on his Long COVID and age” and instead informed Bullock that he was “being laid off rather than affording him a reasonable accommodation,” according to court documents detailing the ongoing employment discrimination civil action lawsuit between Bullock and HCSG, filed on Sept. 29, 2022. Several attempts to reach media officials of HCSG, have failed.
For individuals like Bullock, who also could not be reached, lingering symptoms and need to seek further medical care following a positive COVID-19 diagnosis can incite havoc amongst an individual's personal, work and social aspects of their life. Long Covid can discriminate against individuals, push someone out of their profession and passions in life and lead to a distance between themselves and family and friends.
“You know, [Covid] is a very quick web,” said Sue Boo Daniels from Colrain, Massachusetts, who also has long Covid. “It's startling in the sense that you think you have this security and then all of a sudden you don't. And it's not only not understanding medically, physically, how I'm going to get well again because they're just beginning to understand these pieces. But it's also about just how quickly I need to access medical care if I'm going to get better.”
Bullock is not alone in dealing with the sticky aftermath of suffering from Covid, when symptoms including brain fog, high heart rate, increased blood pressure and extreme fatigue linger after a positive diagnosis.
Daniels has been involved in education her entire life, first as a student and then as an educator. However, in June 2021, Daniels had to resign from her position because her Long Covid symptoms made getting through a single school day extremely difficult. To try and make her decision to resign easier to deal with, she decided she would go back to school to get her masters degree, not knowing that Long Covid had not only affected her health but also her ability to learn.
“My plan was to then get my master's and then go out and start supporting systems to use brain science of behavior more. But, I'm unable to do that. I'm not able to process information. I'm not able to learn any new information. I'm not able to access a lot of my previous knowledge,” said Daniels.
Without being able to be in education at the moment, Daniels has thrown herself into trying to heal from Long Covid. The problem she faces now is trying to figure out which treatment doctor she should visit that week, since she has started to tap into her family's savings account due to the lack of Disability benefits.
“The fact that it's going to take a year after I've already been unemployed for almost two years to find out if I qualify for disability. That's three years of not having income and not having support. That's unconscionable in a rich country like ours,” said Daniels. “I know a lot of folks have gotten lawyers just to get their disability, they're being denied even with adequate documentation they are being denied. ...It's you know, our government could do a lot better.”
Lisa Kay has experienced both physical and mental difficulties in managing the fallout of both her and her husband, Bill Kay, contracting COVID-19 at the same time in February, 2021.
Kay’s husband ended up in the hospital for two weeks suffering from COVID, while Kay was at home suffering from COVID herself. While her symptoms, which include high heart rate, extreme memory issues and vertigo, never sent her to the hospital, they also never truly cleared up from when she first contracted COVID.
Another long lasting effect that Kay experienced that is not as spoken about is the mental health side of Long COVID.
““I’m helping my clients not dismiss their own symptoms, helping them figure out how to advocate for themselves with doctors in that very stressful environment, And putting in perspective that this is real.””
“I understand if you've got to go back to work, you kind of need some answers. But for a lot of us, like there are none. You just have to suffer through it until it kind of does whatever it's going to do and then kind of levels out,” said Kay.
Despite the lack of knowledge regarding Long COVID in the medical world, plenty of individuals work every day to support those who experience this medical phenomenon.
“Granted, you know, a lot of the doctors, there's not that much they can do. You have to learn how to manage it until it slowly resolves itself,” said Lisa Penziner, a nursing home administrator and an R.N. who also runs a Post-COVID-19 support group out of Long Island, New York. “Most of the people that have come through in my support group, the symptoms have slowly resolved. Some of them have permanent damage, but they've learned how to deal with it and how to move on with their lives.”
The support group Penziner manages meets every two weeks on Zoom, with people joining from all over the United States and Canada providing a safe space for these individuals to discuss symptoms, shared experiences, and small goals to try and re-enter a world Post-COVID, despite any discrimination they have received from their families and places of employment.
“So as the time has gone by, you know, my group has come and gone. I would say 85% of the people, 90% of the people, their symptoms have gotten better and they've moved on. But, I'm still getting calls,” said Penziner.
Kimberly Vered Shashoua, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist with practices in Texas and North Carolina, works with many young teen and adult patients, many who experience Long COVID themselves. Within her practice, she works with her patients to try and help them process and acclimate to a world where they have to live every day with these potentially life-altering symptoms.
“I’m helping my clients not dismiss their own symptoms, helping them figure out how to advocate for themselves with doctors in that very stressful environment,” said Shashoua. “And putting in perspective that this is real.”
Despite the unknowns and discrimination against these people who have Long Covid, there are individuals working to try and help these people and find a cure. Dr. Eugene Chan, a graduate from Harvard University and Harvard Medical School is a co-founder of Abpro, a medical technology manufacturer in Woburn, Massachusetts.
The company is working on a “cocktail of antibodies” to help treat Covid correctly and try to prevent it, especially for the immunocompromised communities, but it wouldn’t hurt for those who are already vaccinated or worried about Long Covid to also take the extra step to prevent themselves from getting Covid, said Chan.
“The idea is essentially, if you pre-treat these patients either prophylactically or immediately after they get infected with COVID, then essentially you will not get COVID in the first place, and therefore you're basically prevented from getting Long COVID in the long term,” said Dr. Chan.
While there are workplaces and systems set in place to try and assist those who have Long COVID, not everyone receives those services, as seen in Bullock’s case where, according to court documents, HCSG “was determined there that there are no reasonable accommodations that HCSG can make in order for Mr. Bullock to complete the essential functions of his position within his medically assigned restrictions, and that he is not approved to work at this time.”
In spite of this hardship, Bullock is still trying to sue HCSG for employment discrimination against his Long COVID symptoms that upheaved his entire life.
“The one thing that I really feel is that COVID is like a bomb,” said Kay. “It goes in your body and it destroys everything in its path. And then your body is left with trying to heal from all that trauma.”
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