Now that the November General Election is in the rear-view mirror, Biden’s Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a report stating that masks and social distancing should be mandated or encouraged in public to protect people from possible “long covid.”
The report by the independent research agency Coforma, published Monday, was based in part on interviews with more than 60 people — including patients dealing with lingering COVID-19 symptoms, as well as their caregivers and health care providers.The recommendations included establishing public policies that purportedly protect “everyone from long COVID” – including the reinstatement of a mask mandate.According to the document, jurisdictions dropping mask mandates some two years into the pandemic has made life difficult for those struggling with long COVID.“The lifting of mask mandates and indifferent attitude towards masking and social distancing typical in many public and private places further isolates people with long COVID,” the report says.“Many people with long COVID avoid public spaces and events due to a fear of reinfection and the potential worsening of their long COVID symptoms and health impacts. Some may experience PTSD symptoms as a result of trauma they incurred during their acute infection.”
In addition to the new masking requirements, the report outlined several new ideas that could become new funding priorities for the Biden administration. Those priorities include directing monies toward Big Pharma and Diversity-Equity-and Inclusion programs.
It calls for expanded mental and behavioral health care for people with long COVID, their caregivers and support groups. It pushes for revised federal and state policies to make sure companies and schools provide needed support for those with long COVID, including guidelines on how to accommodate them.It also calls for “vaccine promotion as a preventative measure for Long COVID.”Job-searching and retraining programs are suggested, along with financial assistance to college students such as boarding subsidies, “loan forgiveness for graduates” and expanding the Work Opportunity Tax Credit to encourage companies to hire people with long COVID.Benefits for health care workers that should be considered include expanded disability leave and Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, the report said.The report also calls for an effort to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to get them to commit funding for long COVID advocacy groups, and says “diversity, equity and inclusion-related outreach funding” is needed to ensure research money helps “underresourced and underrepresented communities.”
Social media responses have been robust…in opposition to this foolishness. Some of the less profane are:
Perhaps, with Elon Musk as CEO of Twitter, experts who challenge the reality of “long covid” may actually be able to participate in this debate. For example, Dr. Jeremy Devine, a resident psychiatrist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, reviewed the dubious origins of “long covid.”
A central feature underlying many psychosomatic-symptom disorders is a fixed belief that one is ill and unlikely to recover. By drawing attention to and legitimizing the ever-present threat of long Covid, medical authorities will lead a large group of impressionable patients to believe that their Covid-19 symptoms have not resolved and that they are helpless victims of an unrelenting sickness.In the past century, the media has played a critical role in perpetuating psychogenic illnesses—chronic brucellosis in the 1940s, chronic Epstein Barr virus in the 1980s, and today (although scientifically debunked) chronic Lyme disease. It is therefore alarming to witness the recent proliferation of uncritical and sensational media stories about long Covid.The NIH’s decision is a victory for pseudoscience and will do more to harm than help patients.
One can only hope the mask mandates and the funding go no farther than this inane report.
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