deaths. no. peoples lives, it s lives are being ruined right now on the long term effect of getting covid, even mild cases of covid. so, what are we gonna do about it? with me now, massachusetts congresswoman ayanna pressley. earlier this month, she introduced a bill that would expand access to long covid clinics. congresswoman, thanks for coming back on this show. we ve seen that the long term effects from covid infection are very real, brain fog, fatigue, people losing their taste, smell, etc. it s possible long covid could be a brand new disability that will affect millions of americans for years to come. what does the new bill do to help tackle this off, this long covid issue? thank you, mehdi. there are in fact, earlier in the pandemic, we saw the disability justice, advocates, members of the disability community predict that this has the potential to be a mass disabling event, covid-19. and in fact, it seems that that might be coming to bear. here are some estimates they did, 8
and as the number of long covid patients increases, health care providers are struggling to keep up. in the u.s. there s at least one long covid treatment clinic in almost every state, according to survivor corps, a long haul covid patient survivor group. the true number is those suffering is unclear. researchers estimate it s between 10% and 30% of those who have been infected. the 91 journal of medicine estimated at least 50 million people in the u.s. would have long haul covid before the pandemic ended. that was before record-breaking case loads, some of which are likely to produce long covid. people with the condition are reporting distinct symptoms which require treatments across multiple medical disciplines. these are just a handful of them. and all this is taking a toll on an already burdened health care system. diana bare rant is a covid-19 long hauler and founder of survivor corps and joins us now