Blog

Long COVID: Voices of Resilience

Virtual Q&A Featuring authors Candace Taylor, Peace Waters, and Marc Redding
 

Event Date: October 9 | 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM ET
Co-sponsored by: MaskTogetherAmerica and Public Health Action Network

Long COVID: Voices of Resilience invites you to register for three interactive Q&A sessions featuring authors Candace Taylor, Peace Waters, and Marc Redding. Each has published an intimate account of their arduous journey surviving acute infection and navigating life with Long COVID. Join these vital discussions to shine a light on communities losing hope and fight for systemic visibility.

Schedule (all times ET):

5:00 PM: Opening Remarks by Dr. Marjorie Roberts, Long COVID advocate, MaskTogetherAmerica.

5:10 PM: Q&A with Candace Taylor, author of UnMuzzled: Your Voice is a Treasure [1].

5:45 PM: Q&A with Peace Waters, author of Long COVID Story Short [2]—a collaborative project created alongside their mother, cartoonist and poet Dimitrea Tokunbo.

6:20 PM: Q&A with Marc Redding, author of The Day I Almost Didn’t Come Back [3].

Setting the Stage: Patient Representation and the Underdiagnosis Crisis

This forum is dedicated to raising awareness of Long COVID, with a special focus on patient diversity and data representation. MaskTogetherAmerica is a community of resilience fighting for diagnostic equality and equitable prevention strategies. While virus transmission does not discriminate, institutional systems do, and people of color are disproportionately underdiagnosed due to systemic stigma and deep-rooted healthcare inequities.

This diagnostic gap is starkly quantified in a landmark study published in Health Affairs, which investigated racial and ethnic disparities in Long COVID diagnoses using electronic health records (EHR) from 2.4 million US patients [4]. The analysis revealed that during the Omicron era (January 1, 2022 – March 31, 2023), Black patients were diagnosed with Long COVID at a 6% lower rate than White patients, even when they presented with identical symptom profiles and engaged with healthcare providers at least bimonthly. Because the researchers found no clinical differences in underlying symptom presence to justify this gap, the findings point to systemic diagnostic bias in healthcare. Furthermore, across all racial groups, fewer than 1% of patients in EHR datasets received a formal diagnosis code, despite true community incidence rates being estimated at over 10%.

While formal medical records undercount minoritized groups, self-reported data [5] tells a very different story. Data from the Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey showed that Long COVID is actually more prevalent among Black, Hispanic, and female Americans (Jacobs et al., 2023). This disconnect is dangerous, as the research warns that “diagnostic inequity may have downstream effects on treatment equity and research participation if Long COVID diagnosis influences enrollment in clinical trials”. Without an official diagnostic code, marginalized patients are systematically excluded from clinical solutions and left to face institutional gaslighting. This clinical neglect is exacerbated because a unified, objective diagnostic tool for Long COVID does not exist [10]. While national databases track up to 222 disparate symptoms, the NIH RECOVER adult research algorithm relies on a strict scoring system of only 11 symptoms. This narrow framing fundamentally alters how data is captured, directly impacting symptomatology definition, physician training materials, and future diagnostic tools.

Symptomatology directly affects diagnostic equity

Large-scale clinical studies confirm that Long COVID symptoms manifest differently across demographic lines. A 2023 NIH RECOVER study tracking patients across five major academic medical institutions in New York City revealed that Black and Hispanic Americans experience a greater frequency of Long COVID symptoms and associated conditions than White Americans. The study, led by Weill Cornell Medicine, revealed that Black patients had significantly elevated odds of developing pulmonary blood clots and new-onset diabetes following infection, while Hispanic patients faced higher odds of persistent headaches and debilitating chest pain. 

Conversely, White patients displayed higher odds of abnormal brain function or cognitive damage, and fatigue [7, 8, 9]. 

Lead author Dr. Dhruv Khullar urged clinicians to actively mitigate these disparities by ensuring equitable care access and purposefully enrolling diverse cohorts in clinical trials. By factoring neighborhood-level socioeconomic characteristics in the study, researchers were able to see that a lack of access to care, higher exposure to viral infection, living conditions, or job security may have an impact on these differences, but race and ethnicity may also be a distinctive independent factor (Khullar et al., 2023b).

In a follow-up study [10] analyzing the clinical adoption of the official Long COVID ICD-10 diagnostic code (U09.9), researchers found the diagnosed cohort was overwhelmingly White, female, and non-Hispanic, residing in affluent areas with greater access to healthcare [10]. Co-author Emily Pfaff, Ph.D., attributed this distortion directly to structural barriers, noting that patients with the economic stability, time, and institutional resources to access specialized healthcare are disproportionately represented in clinical datasets [10]. Communities of color are effectively being left out of the data entirely [8, 10] (Respiratory Therapy, 2023).

Let’s Shine the Light for Equity

We hope sharing these critical studies sets a data-backed stage for a lively, transformative discussion with our featured authors. The audience is highly encouraged to drop questions in the chat during this virtual event. The recording will be edited and shared in full on YouTube and Facebook. Focus promotional video reels for each speaker will be distributed across our social platforms to expand our community's reach.

Please register today and email us with any questions.

Highlighted Stories and Articles

[1] UnMuzzled: Your Voice is a Treasure By Candace Taylor

[2] Long COVID Story Short By Peace Waters and Dimitrea Tokunbo

[3] The Day I Almost Didn’t Come Back By Marc Redding 

[4] Butzin-Dozier, Z., et al. (2026). Black Patients Underdiagnosed With Long COVID In The US Compared With White Patients. Health Affairs. 

[5] Jacobs, M. M., et al. (2023). Racial, ethnic, and sex disparities in the incidence and cognitive symptomology of long COVID-19. Journal of the National Medical Association. 

[6] NIH RECOVER Consortium. (2023). Racial & Ethnic Differences in Long COVID Research Summary. 

[7] Khullar, D., et al. (2023). Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Post-acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in New York: an EHR-Based Cohort Study from the RECOVER Program. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 

[8] Respiratory Therapy. (2023). Black, Hispanic Americans Experience Greater Long COVID Symptoms. 

[9] Long Cornell Medicine Newsroom. (2023). Long COVID Symptoms Vary Among Racial and Ethnic Groups. Weill Cornell Medicine. 

[10] Pfaff, E. R., et al. (2023). Coding Long COVID: characterizing a new disease through an ICD-10 lens. BMC Medicine. 

Register to join

MaskTogetherAmerica’s abstract on Long COVID Communication Model has been accepted by the 4th Long COVID International Conference!

MaskTogetherAmerica representatives will present a poster abstract at the 4th Long COVID International Conference, taking place November 12–13, 2026, in Nice, France.

We are excited to be presenting in person at the 4th Long COVID International Conference 2026, which features clean air safety measures like HEPA filtration in meeting rooms, complimentary FFP2 masks, and hand sanitizer. For the patient community attending from home, the conference offers a special €45 virtual registration rate (≈$52 US).

The title of our abstract is: “A Grassroots Digital Communication Model for Long COVID Public Health and Prevention.”

This retrospective study of 94 digital content samples published by MaskTogetherAmerica between 2023 and 2026 across Instagram and Facebook evaluates how community-led digital frameworks achieve organic reach, dismantle medical stigma, and navigate algorithmic content filtering.

The data underscores that we must utilize multiple creative strategies to raise awareness about Long COVID and to promote layered prevention. A grassroots campaign must actively serve marginalized communities to win the public's trust and support. Integrated, patient-led digital strategies are scalable, powerful tools for global public health awareness, especially in the battle for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment equity.

When our community stands up together, we become the distribution engine for truth. See you online or in Nice. Let’s keep pushing for clinical guidance, biomarkers, and clean air.

Registration Links:

• Virtual attendance registration rate for people living with Long COVID (€45)
• General registration

Registration: People living with Long COVID (€45)    General Registration

Long COVID Defense Series IV

MaskTogetherAmerica warmly invites you to watch the Long COVID Defense Series IV on YouTube and Facebook. The event was held on September 2, 2026, from 3:40 PM to 6:40 PM ET. Six individual Q&A sessions feature Long COVID researchers, healthcare providers, and patient advocates. 5 speakers joined the live virtual event and one was recorded.

Schedule

• 3:45 PM - 4:15 PM ET: Robert DeRosa (NIH RECOVER Patient Representative & Long COVID Patient)
• 4:20 PM - 4:50 PM ET: Laura Pensiero (Long COVID Patient, Certified Meditation and Breathwork Practitioner)
• 4:55 PM - 5:25 PM ET: Dr. Michael Peluso (Associate Professor of Medicine, UCSF)
• 5:30 PM - 6:00 PM ET: Dr. Elham Raker (Board-certified Pediatrician, Parenting Coach, Founder of Root to Bloom Pediatrics and Coaching, Mom with Child Living with LC)
• 6:05 PM - 6:40 PM ET: Dr. David Keegan (Professor of Family Medicine, University of Calgary)
• RECORDING: Dr. David Putrino (Director of Rehabilitation Innovation, Mount Sinai Health System)

Long COVID Defense Series broke ground in 2025
We launched the Long COVID Defense Series in November 2025 to create a safe, educational space for our community to share vital research findings and true lived experiences. This series was born out of a critical need to fight the systemic erasure of Long COVID and to ensure it remains highly visible, clearly defined, and distinct in research, clinical care, and societal awareness.

Across our past three recorded forums, we have hosted 15 insightful sessions with global experts, journalists, and advocates. This volunteer, community-led effort is fueled entirely by your support and our shared power to reach millions worldwide.

Advocating for Every Patient
Long COVID patients of all ages, severity levels, and phenotypes deserve equal representation. We must fight systemic stigma and medical gaslighting together. We know that this condition remains massively underdiagnosed due to a lack of physician guidance, biomarkers, inclusive criteria, and FDA-approved treatments.

A unified, distinct diagnostic criterion is long overdue. We urgently need the ratification of specific phenotypes and etiologies. Healthcare providers should use a dedicated Long COVID tracker that organizes all 200+ reported symptoms by organ system. Until these specific medical tools exist, accurate diagnosis remains unaffordable, inaccessible, and unattainable for the vast majority of patients. We need collective action to ensure that vulnerable patients are not pushed outside the circle and left invisible. Until then, there will be no end to this mass-disabling crisis.

How You Can Help
We are deeply grateful to our community for helping us share past forums. All our virtual forums are fully recorded to increase accessibility. Please keep an eye out for our upcoming video PSAs on social media. By sharing these segments, you help us spread critical knowledge. Together, we can make real change happen.

Access Info:

• Format: 6 Q&A sessions. 5 speakers joined during the LIVE event. One session was recorded for sharing in the final video.
• Presentations are spoken English
• Chat was open during the live virtual event
• Camera off for guests for security reasons
• Recording is edited and available on the website through Youtube and Facebook

Watch on Facebook    Watch on YouTube

The Hidden Crisis of Long COVID Underdiagnosis

A Bloomberg Law article by Lauren Clason underscores the urgent need to address the systemic coding issues that leave a huge number of patients by the wayside.

Bloomberg Law reports that an A.I. investigation of health records reveals a massive “blind spot” where more than 56% of Long COVID (LC) cases may be missing from official records. Health reporter Lauren Clason highlighted the surveillance study that focused on the heterogeneous impact of LC—exposing the harsh reality of people living with  multi-systemic chronic conditions following an infection of SARS-CoV-2, who are being denied disability support and access to care. 

Data from the JAMA study shows that 89.31% of LC patients have at least 1 chronic condition. Clason interviewed Julie Lam, a representative for MaskTogetherAmerica and the LC community at NIH RECOVER, who struggles with COVID-triggered organ damage and multiple debilitating symptoms since the winter of 2021, even while being up to date with vaccination. It was not until recently that CoRE Mt. Sinai officially diagnosed her with Long COVID.

“As someone who waited 3 years for a LC diagnosis, I know how critical it is to move past 'diagnoses of exclusion,” Lam says. She is grateful for the opportunity to share her lived experience to advocate for this marginalized community. “What I appreciate most about Lauren’s reporting is the deep dive into Harvard Medical School Assoc. Prof. Hossein Estiri’s JAMA study—while centering the voices of patients, providers and caregivers. Uncovering the root causes of inequality in our healthcare system is crucial. This is the kind of journalism that moves the needle on Long COVID care and coverage.” 

Read: Long COVID Underdiagnosis Poses Broader Care, Coverage Hurdles to advocate By Lauren Clason 

Long COVID Underdiagnosis Poses Broader Care, Coverage Hurdles

We Need CURE ID— A tool for reporting new uses of existing drugs is valuable!

Submit a public comment to tell FDA you want to see cures/treatments for Long COVID prioritized in drug repurposing

To address the escalating Long COVID crisis, we need everyone to ask the FDA to prioritize drug repurposing for chronic illnesses following infectious diseases such as COVID-19. Let them know that you find it odd that CURE ID - FDA’s primary repurposing initiative - is not mentioned in its request for drug repurposing info for unmet medical needs. 

Based on the latest surveillance report, 1 in 6 infected with COVID-19 developed this multi-systemic condition that’s currently incurable and mass disabling the workforce in the United States. 89.31% of these patients had at least 1 chronic condition. (JAMA Network, 2026). 

We need the FDA to expedite the approval of repurposed drugs for treating Long COVID and significantly expand the CURE ID program. A tool for reporting new uses of existing drugs is valuable. We need ‘CURE ID’.

Template available in our Health Justice Toolkit. The deadline for comments is June 11. You can submit your comment here.

(Note docket number FDA-2026-N-4492 for “Drug Repurposing for Unmet Medical Needs; Request for Information.”)

Comment Template    Submit your comment

Fight for Airborne Act 2026

Tell your Members of Congress to support the Airborne Act of 2026, and urge strengthening its infection control standard with extra incentives for ASHRAE 241.

Send a personalized letter to your members of Congress!

Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA) announced the reintroduction of the Airborne Act. This law would encourage non-residential building owners to check indoor air quality (IAQ) and upgrade their ventilation and air filtration systems. The bill, H.R. 7460, uses the tax code to give building owners incentives to do these checks and upgrades, making our workplaces and public indoor spaces safer from airborne diseases, wildfire smoke, and pollution.

However, this bill should be updated to include extra incentive to meet ASHRAE Standard 241. That 2023 air quality standard was created for the "Control of Infectious Aerosols" at the request of the White House. ASHRAE Standard 241 is much better at reducing airborne pathogens than ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2022. (ASHRAE is an association of engineers that sets standards for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning.)

We deserve the best ventilation standards to protect against pandemics and pollution.

Please customize your letter for greater impact and call your members of Congress. #CleanAir is a human right. Let’s show our support!  

Follow the progress of H.R. 7460, "the Airborne Act of 2026."  

The Airborne Act 2026 Press Release    Letter Template on Action Network

GRAMMY-Nominated Nina Storey & MaskTogetherAmerica Debut the Dark Comedy "Strangely Optimistic": A Bold New Film for the Long COVID Global Crisis

An urgent entry for the 2026 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge, turning a devastating, invisible health crisis into a powerful call for equity, using hope and humor

MaskTogetherAmerica is proud to support the Long COVID disability film “Strangely Optimistic,” making its digital debut for the 2026 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge on YouTube and Facebook. Written, directed by and starring two-time GRAMMY and EMMY-nominated singer-songwriter Nina Storey and co-produced by MaskTogetherAmerica Founder Julie Lam, this dark comedy is a rare, unfiltered look into the isolation of living with the life-altering long-term effects of COVID-19.

Synopsis:

"Strangely Optimistic" follows aspiring singer-songwriter, "Nina Storey", who is blindsided by debilitating mystery symptoms following a Covid infection early in the Pandemic. Although perpetually gaslit by everyone around her, armed with dark humor, music, her loyal pup, and an alarming amount of pickle juice, she finds a way to keep getting back up.

After years of forced social withdrawal and a hiatus from the stage, Storey is using this platform to redefine Long COVID not just as a medical condition, but as a critical health equity and disability rights emergency.

“Long COVID has been an invisible battle for millions, often leaving us feeling like ghosts in our own lives," says Nina Storey. "Through this film, we want to shine a light on that darkness with humor and hope, showing that even in our most dire struggles, there is a path toward visibility, change, and healing.”

A Set Built on Radical Empathy
Built on a foundation of radical empathy and inclusion, the dedicated crew featured collaborators living with various disabilities. In an era of diminishing precautions, our set served as a model for the future of filmmaking—where masking is a fundamental act of care and disability is celebrated as a source of creative power.

The "Push-Crash" Reality
The Easterseals Disability Film Challenge requires a grueling 5-day sprint. For most, this means extra caffeine; for Nina and Julie, it meant navigating the perilous "push-crash" cycle. The physical and neurological demands of production triggered severe symptom flare-ups for both—a sobering, firsthand demonstration of the "invisible" price paid by the 400 million people worldwide struggling to survive Long COVID.

A Demand to Be Seen
Julie Lam, a Long Hauler, editor, and NIH RECOVER representative, co-produced the project to amplify MaskTogetherAmerica’s mission. "Patients are being devastated by a lack of access to diagnosis and treatment," says Lam, who worked through three sleepless nights to edit the film. "By submitting to this challenge, we are demanding that the world finally see us."

"Emerging in 2020, COVID-19 remains a relentless global crisis that has left millions with Long COVID," Lam added. "This multisystemic assault targets vital organs—from the brain to the heart to the gut—disrupting every system in the human body. Long COVID is a disability that demands immediate attention, accelerated research, and total equity."

Join the Movement: Long COVID Awareness Campaign 

From April 4 to April 13, we are competing for the Best Awareness Campaign award. This isn’t just about a film; it’s about a global community demanding its right to exist and be heard.

WATCH THE FILM HERE    Press Release

NYC should light up in teal for International Long COVID Awareness Day! Join our Petition!

March 15 is International Long COVID Awareness Day. NYC was an early pandemic epicenter, and countless New Yorkers now face Long COVID without FDA-approved treatments or diagnostic biomarkers. We wrote to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani asking NYC to join Los Angeles and other cities around the world in recognizing Long COVID as a historic struggle. We want New York City Hall to light up in teal on March 15 in observance of Long COVID Awareness Day. We created a petition for everyone to join our action. You can also additionally send a personal note directly to Mayor Mamdani. 

We also created a letter template in our Health Justice Toolkit for New Yorkers to write to their Council Members to demand a motion for March 15 recognition. 

The recognition is a needed step to offer visibility and hope to New Yorkers and millions of others living with Long COVID globally.

Sign Petition    Letter template to Council Members

Long COVID Defense Series III featured 6 Virtual Q&A Sessions

March 4, 2026, 4:30pm - 9:00pm EST

Watch Long COVID Defense Series III to honor patients and their allies who are tirelessly advocating for health justice in this historic struggle on YouTube and Facebook. On March 4, 2026, 4:30pm-9:00pm EST, 6 Q&A sessions featured an extraordinary international panel of speakers. 

4:30 pm Dr. Michael Hoerger gave opening remarks

4:35 pm Delphine Crespo, President of Association of Long COVID Aragón

5:10 pm Dr. Ciara Steele, co-founder of Clean Air Advocacy Ireland (CAAI) 

5:45 pm Elisa Perego, PhD, Long COVID Rise Up expert member who coined the term Long COVlD 

6:20 pm Pamela Morrison, Long COVID Advocacy Ireland

6:55 pm Angela L., Creator of International Long COVID Awareness Day

7:35 pm Devin Russell, Founder of Long COVID Foundation

8:15 pm Paul Hennessy (Organizer of the 2024 Long COVID Demonstration in Washington DC) gave closing remarks

Emceed by Sarah Cahill, Dr. Angelique Corthals, and Dr. Robi Tamargo, with Dr. Michael Hoerger and Paul Hennessy delivering remarks, the educational forum series aims to battle erasure of Long COVID (LC) through raising awareness together. The MaskTogetherAmerica team, led by Julie Lam, an NIH RECOVER Long COVID patient representative, brings patients, advocates, and researchers together to encourage collaboration in tackling this unprecedented global health crisis that impacts people of all ages and all walks of life.

With patients in our network sharing their lived experiences, and with researchers sharing their findings, our pandemic documentary project is revealing that Long COVID is a multisystemic condition that affects all organ systems, potentially due to organ damage, vascular dysfunction, viral persistence, neurological dysfunction, mitochondrial dysfunction, metabolic dysfunction, immune dysfunction, autoimmunity, chronic inflammation, gut dysbiosis, mast cell dysfunction, and latent viral reactivation.

Long COVID patients struggle with all kinds of diagnosable and less diagnosable conditions induced by COVID: diabetes (Type 1 & 2), fatty liver, smell and taste disorder [3][4], chronic eye issues [5][6][7], blood clots, cardiovascular disease, lung conditions such as asthma, hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol), autoimmune disorders, reactivation of latent viruses and dormant cancer cells, neurodegenerative disease, hair loss (alopecia), voice loss, oral conditions, sleep disorders, allergies, and impaired cognition, just to name a few.

Long COVID patients can be living with organ damage to their heart [8][9][10], lungs, digestive system, brain, kidneys, liver, pancreas and reproductive system [11] [12]. 

COVID can also trigger hard-to-diagnose conditions such as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), in which patients often suffer from orthostatic intolerance, causing Tachycardia and dizziness when you transition from sitting or lying down to standing up. 

Some Long COVID patients develop post-exertional malaise (PEM), which often leaves them bed-bound. PEM is also seen in other conditions, including ME/CFS, lupus and cancer.  ME/CFS is a commonly self-reported cluster of symptoms that waxes and wanes. A 2025 NIH-funded study that excluded hospitalized patients finds that 4.5% of post-COVID-19 participants, mostly from the Omicron era, met ME/CFS diagnostic criteria.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of 429 studies (2021–2024) found a 36% pooled global prevalence of long COVID among SARS-CoV-2-positive individuals, confirming that roughly one-third of people experience persistent symptoms. The review explores the prevalence of 8 subtypes and 41 symptoms, and the 11 most common risk factors. The subtypes include respiratory (20%), neurological (16%), cardiovascular (10%), musculoskeletal (9%), gastrointestinal (5%), psychological (18%), dermatological (12%), and general fatigue (20%). The findings show that significant burden remains high, with studies indicating that prevalence actually appears higher (47%) 1–2 years post-infection compared to under 1 year (35%).

Each infection of SARS-CoV-2 can trigger onset or relapse of these conditions that can shorten a person’s life. Despite how data is being suppressed, Long COVID is causing deaths. However, the government is not rapidly testing existing medications to target different Long COVID etiologies. We have yet to see any research on distinctive biomarkers being developed for different etiologies. There’s no unified inclusive research index, nor diagnostic criteria for clinicians. Research studies generally exclude patients with comorbidities, missing crucial information on how COVID exacerbates all kinds of medical conditions. RECOVER has been using an 11-point scoring system on 12 symptoms to identify patients. The research index over-weighed PEM and loss of taste and smell, excluding those that don’t meet the criteria, most likely patients from the Omicron era. Many Long COVID conditions that involve organ or immunological dysfunctions don’t show many symptoms but can only be detected by blood profile. 

Long COVID patients, unable to be diagnosed with Long COVID, often struggle with stigma, or being accused of psychosomatizing. Their losses in function and quality of life are dismissed as “normal aging” or stress-induced. Primary physicians are mostly untrained to diagnose Long COVID. Because of heterogenic manifestations that affect multiple organ systems, patients are often sent to see multiple specialists who might also be uneducated about Long COVID. RECOVER studies on long-term symptom trajectories indicate that for a significant subset of patients, Long COVID symptoms can progress overtime, and symptoms worsen over time in some patients. Long COVID specialists at a Long COVID clinic are trained to diagnose patients with Long COVID, but 80% of these clinics have shuttered due to lack of funding, providers and approved treatments. 

Long COVID Defense Series was launched in November 2025 to fight erasure of Long COVID. MaskTogetherAmerica is dedicated to supporting patients especially those who cannot recover from an infection or multiple infection of COVID-19. We hope our educational campaign will arm patients with knowledge to address their health decline. We hope meeting other patients will help renew your stamina to seek diagnosis and targeted treatments, instead of self-deprecation. “It’s not because of your age. It’s Long COVID.” 

We hope our forum will encourage research that targets multiple etiologies and lead to creation of targeted biomarkers for each pathway. We need funding for research and Long COVID clinics. We hope that our effort will increase grassroots activism! 

Hundreds of millions of people suffer from Long COVID worldwide. Long COVID is a top-ranking chronic illness among children. Indoor air quality needs to follow ASHRAE standards 241, the minimum requirements in reducing exposure to infectious aerosols in buildings by combining ventilation, filtration, and air cleaning. In addition, immunization, N95 respirators, and sick leave are essential preventive strategies to protect communities. We hope our forum will fuel the movement that empower people to support public health by advocating for preventive measures together. When we work together, we can make changes happen.

Access Info:

• Format: 6 Q&A sessions
• Presentations will be in spoken English
• Chat will be open
• Camera off for guests for security reasons
• Recording will be edited and available on the website through Youtube and Facebook

YouTube    Facebook

Long COVID Defense Series II featuring 4 Virtual Q&A Sessions

Jan 15, 2026, 5:00pm - 8:00pm EST

COVID-19  and Long COVID (LC) can be lethal. Millions of Long COVID Patients of all ages around the world are uncared for, unable to get diagnosed, and struggling to protect themselves from more infections that can exacerbate symptoms. Contrary to claims that little is known about Long COVID, the scientific community has identified several etiologies that explain why symptoms persist in individuals. Long COVID is now recognized as a complex multi-system condition, and research has progressed to identifying specific, testable causation pathways. We invite you to watch MaskTogetherAmerica Long COVID Defense Series, Part II, on Jan 15, 2026, 5:00pm - 8:00pm EST. Our virtual event featured 4 esteemed speakers: 

—Sinéad O'Brien, co-founder of Clean Air Advocacy Ireland (CAAI) 

—Akiko Iwasaki, Ph.D., Sterling Professor of Immunobiology at the Yale University School of Medicine 

—Betsy Ladyzhets and Miles W. Griffis, co-founders and editors of The Sick Times, a non-profit news site covering Long COVID and the ongoing pandemic.

Our Long COVID series is very fortunate to have this amazing panel of advocates who don’t hold back on defending health justice for long-haulers. Lack of awareness and recognition fuels gaslighting and diagnostic odysseys in Long COVID, leading to delay and lack of options in treatment – all exacerbated by age, gender, class, and racial inequalities. More than ever, the unprecedented retrenchment of U.S. public health protections/efforts, health insurance and social services—including nearly $1 trillion in impending Medicaid cuts, reduced Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, the closing of 80% of Long COVID clinics in the U.S., and the end of federal support for disability outreach—has made community support vital for the survival of Long COVID patients.

Watch recording on YouTube and Facebook.

Access Info:

• Format: 4 Q&A sessions
• Presentations are in spoken English, auto captions allowed
• Chat was open
• Camera off for guests for security reasons
• Recording was edited

YouTube    Facebook

MaskTogetherAmerica Long COVID Defense Series I featuring 5 virtual Q&A sessions

November 7, 2025, from 5:00 to 8:30 pm Eastern

"The cumulative global incidence of Long COVID is around 400 million individuals, which is estimated to have an annual economic impact of approximately $1 trillion—equivalent to about 1% of the global economy," according to a science review published in 2024 by top Long COVID researchers in the U.S. Yet prevention of COVID-19 is viewed by most Americans as a taboo. Every day, COVID-19 is infecting people and spreading. Every infection can lead to Long COVID, which has no cure or FDA approved treatment. Regardless of severity, patients face long waits, gaslighting, dismissal, abandonment, and high costs in seeking diagnosis and experimental treatments. Every day, this global health crisis is spreading like wildfire as doctors and nurses treat the thought of Long COVID as a medical taboo and banish it from public consciousness.

Watch MaskTogetherAmerica’s first virtual forum of its Long COVID Defense Series on Friday, November 7, from 5:00 to 8:30 pm Eastern, featuring:

• Solenn Tanguy, president of Winslow Santé Publique, a Long COVID advocacy group in France
• Dr. Angelique Corthals, CUNY professor, multidisciplinary researcher in biomedical science and biological/forensic anthropology, and Doctors Without Borders consultant in diagnostic technology and biologics delivery
• Adam Van Bavel, Long COVID patient activist and administrator of Maryland Indoor Air Quality Advocates (MIAQA)
• Ann E. Wallace, Ph.D., English professor, poet, and NIH RECOVER patient representative
• Becky Ancira Robertson, MaskTogetherAmerica founding member, Long COVID advocate, researcher and representative of the World Health Network

We are grateful to start our series of virtual forums on Long COVID with this great panel of Long COVID advocates who don’t hold back on sharing their experiences and defending health justice for long-haulers. When someone is down, we won't leave them behind, especially when so many people need a helping hand. We are going to speak out together.

YouTube    Facebook