In March 2022, the National Network for Long COVID Justice was launched as a coalition of groups representing people with Long Covid and other chronic illnesses (including notable leadership of ME/CFS activists) to insist that governments and institutions take seriously the chronic aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The coalition released a Long Covid Justice pledge, asking patients and activists to sign on to the following:
In the third year of the pandemic, we must end practices and policies that ignore, and further marginalize, disabled and chronically-ill people. The National Network for Long COVID Justice ask you to join us in a pledge:
– To include Long COVID in the narrative of the COVID-19 pandemic; we cannot tell the story of COVID without discussing Long COVID.
– To center, platform, and resource those with Long COVID, complex chronic illnesses, and other disabilities at the forefront of policy, advocacy, and action related to these issues.
– To work to end the marginalization of disabled and chronically-ill people, which is a constant and widespread harm, existing outside of and across all aspects of pandemics.
– To recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic and Long COVID have disproportionately impacted already marginalized communities, including Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.We are experiencing a mass disabling event, and disabled people and those with Long COVID must be at the forefront of addressing this unprecedented moment.
The pledge has been signed by a range of leaders from across disability justice movements and public health communities. The coalition continues to advocate through a framework of disability justice and regularly posts media coverage about Long Covid.
— Harris Kornstein