Back in March 2020, Chimére L. Sweeney was a teacher in Middle School in Baltimore. After students and teachers were sent home, she lost deliveries, food and homework to her public school students and expects everyone to return in two weeks. It’s when she believes She got Covid-19. When Her symptoms – including migraines, diarrhea and constipation – developed into more serious issues that affect her vision, cognitive ability and memory, she sought medical advice.
“I stopped being able to speak and think as sharply as I once did,” says Sweeney. “I couldn’t get out of bed. I could only take a shower, and the shower was the only way I knew I was still alive, because otherwise I would sleep 15 to 18 hours a day.” For several months her symptoms became serious and yet, No doctor believed her – She says she went to three hospitals and saw more than 10 doctors with over 12 your visits. Most of them were white men, she remembers: “They would assure me that I was doing well and pretended that my symptoms were not abnormal during a time when many reported long -lasting Covid symptoms.”
It wasn’t until 2022 that Sweeney officially diagnosed with shaggyThanks to a black woman Doctor Who Sweeney says “believed me.” “After e -post (doctor) managers I could get a formal clinical diagnosis,” she says.
Sweeney’s experience with Long Covid is just one of the many stories from women who have continued to be affected by the virus, even five years after the pandemic. Since then, research has found it Women are more likely to develop a long covid as well as develop infections during covid tops. There are some established reasons why: Women mainly occupy jobs with the most Covid exposure, including teachingThe retailand childcare and women’s immune systems can makes us more receptive To develop Long Covid.
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Monica Verduzco GutierrezMD, is a physicist and rehabilitative medical doctor who runs a covid recovery clinic.
Covid is a feminist issue.
“Covid is a feminist issue,” says Dr. Monica Verduzco Gutierrez, who had long had Covid himself. She says her research has shown that “a large proportion of our patients are women who are affected by Long Covid.” In addition, people with intersectional identities are affected disproportionately by Covid. “We already know that these are communities that may not have the same access to care and may have jobs that can put them more at risk for these types of infections in the first place,” says Dr. Verduzco Gutierrez.
Five years after the pandemic continues Covid to affect women disproportionately, and it is likely to worsen during Trump administration. According to The zigzagTrump has ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to terminate the Long Covid Committee. The publication reports that there is also a lack of supplier knowledge Exercise programs are very necessary. Historically Medical research has left womenAnd long covid patients as well as medical experts are worried about what this means along the line.
As a black woman, Sweeney says she was racist profiled when she tried to explain her symptoms to doctors. “I had to force myself into a kingdom where doctors listened to me and I had to bring paper work everywhere,” she says. “I had to get them to write in my diagram if they denied me testing or service.”
At the same time, Sweeney became involved in an online community where people shared their long covid symptoms and struggle. This helped her feel less alone, but most of the people she heard from were white, she says: “I had to let people know about the black long Covid experience because no one talked about it. And I didn’t want the story to tell a story that was not true about who suffered.” From there she launched a Covid lawyer career that is still going strong today.
Dr. Verduzco Gutierrez acknowledges that there is “a lot of medical gas lighting and stigmatization and dismissal of patients, especially women.” Like Sweeney, some are told that their symptoms are psychological. “Studies have been done that show that there is a high prevalence of patients who feel they are stigmatized when they have a long covid,” says Dr. Verduzco Gutierrez.
Experiencing Long Covid definitely made me understand another level of marginalization in this society that I had not previously experienced.
Fi Lowenstein, a 31-year-old who lived in New York City, was infected by Covid by a close friend on March 13, 2020. Most were not yet Wear masks when.
When Lowenstein began to experience shortness of breath, they were hospitalized. “I am white and I am young and there were different things about me that I think made doctors in some way prioritize me in a situation where many people were not prioritized,” they reflect. Now, five years later, they live with a very mild case of Long Covid.
Lowenstein, which identifies as non-binary, admits that the handling of long Covid disproportionately affects people who are marginalized: working class, people in color and queer and transparent. In addition, Lowenstein says there is the extra question of trying to access a care for a chronic illness It’s not super floor. While they say that people claim that this is because it is still “new”, in reality, this has happened because chronic illnesses disproportionately affect women and people assigned to female at birth.
“Experiencing Long Covid definitely made me understand another marginalization level in this society that I had not previously experienced – and how disabled and chronically ill people are so often forgotten, both in terms of state politics, but also in terms of social and cultural norms and trends,” says Lowenstein. “To gain access to healthcare, especially, is obviously more complex if you are not only non-binary, but also live with a complex, often misunderstood complex chronic illness. But again I want to emphasize that I still experience a lot of privilege in healthcare systems such as a white, thin, often cis-pass person with private health insurance.”
Many people are also not aware that they have long been covid due to a lack of public education and media information about what it looks like and how to treat it.
“Long Covid is so heterogeneous and can present so differently and there is limited information out there,” says Dr. Verduzco Gutierrez. “It’s not time to trivialize long Covid. We must continue to educate our communities.” With a lack of education and resources, the discussion about the disease has mostly faded in the background and now, five years later, they are virtually invisible. So where do we go from here? “We go from recognition to action,” says Dr. Verduzco Gutierrez. “The first step is to believe women with Long Covid and advocates for research and political change.”
Sweeney still has a reluctance to see a doctor regularly – especially after moving to NY. “I have been here for two years and still establish care with doctors that I think I can trust. More than half of the new doctors I meet are still not as knowledgeable about Long Covid – even after five years.” Although she can handle many of her symptoms at home, she still has to see a cardiologist, neurologist, pediatrician, gastroenterologist and psychiatrist regularly to ensure that these areas of her health are handled. “Most people do not understand how tiring and worrying these doctors’ visits are.” Now she is afraid of what Trump’s budget cuts will mean for disabled people who have long been crowded and depend on Medicaid, Medicare and social security benefits. “I can’t afford to get my SSDI control in a way,” she says.
As she is moving forward, her plan is to continue to help black people who need support in health slander. “I will always be a teacher in the heart, so I intend to continue to educate black communities on how to advocate for fair healthcare: we have the right to ensure that doctors respect our needs and collaborate with us to establish long covid symptom management and treatment.”
Sweeney sees that he addresses Long Covid as a matter for women’s rights in general. “I think the beauty of feminism – in its true form – is that it does not idealize exclusion as much as we all learned to believe,” she says. “It includes, fills and examines all equality, while focusing on women being equal to men or any other gender.”
Sara Radin is a writer and publicist based in Philadelphia. Her writing about internet trends, style, youth culture, mental health, health culture and identity has been published by the New York Times, Glamor, Self, Teen Vogue, Refinery29, Allure, PS and many others.
