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