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Long COVID affects many Minnesotans years after the pandemic

It’s been six years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but many Minnesotans are still suffering its aftermath. Coming up at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, MPR News host Angela Davis talks about the extreme fatigue, brain fog and other symptoms of long COVID.
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Angela Davis and Maja Beckstrom
September 30, 2026 9:00 AM

Long COVID affects many Minnesotans years after the pandemic​

Coming up at 9 a.m. on Wednesday


...

Coming up at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, MPR News host Angela Davis talks with a doctor and a public health leader about long COVID and other other post-infection chronic conditions that doctors are only beginning to understand.

And we want to hear from you, too.

Have you been diagnosed with long COVID or do you have chronic symptoms that you think are related to getting COVID-19? How has the condition affected your life?

Call us during the 9 a.m. hour at 651-227-6000 or 800-242-2828. 

Guests: 

 
@Chandelier TY for sharing this link. Just listened this morning. A few of my thoughts: one thing that struck me was how clearly you can hear the urgency and seriousness in the reporters voices throughout the segment. That urgency to me seemed to be echoed by the physician and the program manager who underscored that these conditions are not new even though many are only now beginning to recognize their impact. Another aspect that stood out to me was how firmly the PM pushed back on the outdated assumption around exercise and GET for ME (after the call-in), emphasizing that exertion can worsen symptoms and for some lead to lasting declines in function. Her conviction on that point was hard to miss I thought

The reporters commented several times on the volume of calls coming into the program, which signals there is significant public interest in this topic
 
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Chandelier said:
Headline: "The life-threatening dangers of long flu — from diabetes risk to brain inflammation"

"These illnesses are what experts call “long flu,” impacting the respiratory system, according to researchers at WashU Medicine."
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I'm not sure I see any benefit in the term "long flu."

If the person meets ME/CFS diagnosis then call it ME/CFS. And maybe add that it was triggered by flu.

If the person doesn't meet ME/CFS diagnosis then there are a bunch of other umbrella terms: post-viral syndrome, post-viral fatigue syndrome, post-acute infection syndromes, etc.

So many folks with ME/CFS got it after a flu-like illness (although many of us never got a test to show what virus it was). I really don't get why we should use long flu, but maybe someone else can explain?
 
ahimsa said:
I'm not sure I see any benefit in the term "long flu."
Click to expand...

Presumably this term has developed off the back of ‘Long Covid’ so I guess short term it might carry some recognition value, but I do agree longer term there are already better terms.

Personally I developed ME/CFS with a glandular fever/mono associated onset (Long EBV?) from which I believed I had recovered from after some 4 or 5 years, but later relapsed in association with seasonal flue (Long Flue?), however I don’t think as time goes on that either term, Long EBV or Long Flue, add anything meaningful to my ME/CFS diagnosis.

Indeed as we move on from the main pandemic phase of Covid, the term Long Covid will become less meaningful given so many people will have been exposed to Covid 19, but were not tested at the time, we generally will not know if their presumed post viral symptoms are due to a Covid infection or to another virus.
 
From Bluesky:



Jon Douglas @atranscendedman.bsky.social

CDC sent me the 2025 NHIS data this week, and one number stuck with me.

8.7 million American adults were living with Long COVID in 2025.

That's 1 in 30 of us.

It's easy to stop seeing a crisis once it stops being new.

It's still happening.

2025 NHIS Questionnaires, Datasets, and Documentation

Links to the 2025 NHIS materials and data.
www.cdc.gov www.cdc.gov
https://bsky.app/profile/atranscendedman.bsky.social#
bafkreih3fsvzlqwnpwqxckg7irn7taixxjomawwpj5fez26knngfnpe4ra


​
 
ahimsa said:
I'm not sure I see any benefit in the term "long flu."

If the person meets ME/CFS diagnosis then call it ME/CFS. And maybe add that it was triggered by flu.

If the person doesn't meet ME/CFS diagnosis then there are a bunch of other umbrella terms: post-viral syndrome, post-viral fatigue syndrome, post-acute infection syndromes, etc.
Click to expand...
It's odd how I found it notable that in the first 1-2 years of LC I saw regular (not that many, but still) mentions of physicians saying something like "we've always known about post-viral illness" when talking about LC, and I haven't seen a single one in the last 4 years.

You'd almost think there were memos to that effect, to keep is shush. And, you know what, it doesn't even sound like a conspiracy given everything we know about how this was majorly mishandled. It's very obvious that the whole "social contagion" nonsense has been given massively inflated influence, and that there is still zero motivation to adapt to the obvious fact that it was always a cheap lie.
 
"Four years in, it isn't going down."​

And won't until we get a vaccine that blocks transmission, not just reduces transmission and the consequences of getting infected, as worthy as those achievements are.


Maybe. But given the indisputable track record and character of this administration, including on health issues, and RFK Jr himself, I remain deeply skeptical and worried about both efficacy and especially safety.
 


Guest Opinion: COVID-19‘s long-haulers are suffering and need our support​

By Michele Gerber
OCTOBER 4, 2026 5:00 AM

...

Unfortunately, one member of our family was not so lucky. Through some genetic twist of fate, body chemistry, or other mechanism we still don’t understand, she became intensely ill within two hours of taking the vaccine. Getting a firm answer about what happened, and the help she needs, has been difficult due to the lack of research into the fallout of the pandemic.

Five years later, she is still terribly sick.

Our family member and others deserve answers, and medical professionals deserve the resources and research necessary to support these patients suffering from long-term COVID effects.
​

​

 

HHS Launches Agency-Wide Actions to Strengthen Vaccine Injury Research, Reporting, and Patient Care​

Click to expand...

To address health problems Americans report after vaccinations, HHS:
  • Opened a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) clinic dedicated to studying and caring for patients experiencing health problems following vaccination;
  • Proposed reimbursing physicians for reporting suspected vaccine-related injuries to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) through a new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) policy, bringing vaccine reporting in Medicare in line with typical Medicare reimbursement policies;
  • Will require electronic health records to capture vaccine-related adverse events so that information can follow patients across the health care system; and
  • Is modernizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) VAERS to make reporting simpler and improve the tools available to researchers and medical professionals investigating potential safety signals.
Click to expand...
 
Hate to say this, but it is a deliberate pseudo-Darwinian strategy to kill off those they see as the weak and unfit. Same reason (in part) for also lowering general technical and safety standards across the board.

Of course, they will usually sprint to the nearest hospital demanding the best possible science-based treatment if anything serious happens to them or their loved ones. The strategy is only meant to apply to the poor and the out groups.
 
eu.goerie.com

Long COVID cost her career, postponed her marriage. The battle isn't over

Millcreek Township's Alex Salen's long COVID symptoms have changed over the years but have never gone away.
eu.goerie.com eu.goerie.com

Geoblocked and paywalled. They really don't want you to read this.

Long COVID cost her career, postponed her marriage. The battle isn't over​

Oct. 12, 2026, 5:10 a.m. ET

Sleep brings little relief in Dr. Alex Salen's four-year battle with long COVID.

Before she goes to bed, the 35-year-old Millcreek Township woman covers her mattress with bath towels and places extra pairs of pajamas nearby. One of her symptoms is night sweats so severe that she soaks several towels and sets of clothes each night.
Click to expand...
 
From Leonard Jason on Facebook:

Good news: I just learned of this NIH award to my research team: "SARS-CoV-2 and EBV-orchestrated activation of the kynurenine pathway" Sponsor: National Institutes of Health

Abstract: We propose to work on a single, focused goal that will require a team-based integration of distinct disciplines and know-how to deliver a transformative outcome. We propose to test the hypothesis that pathogenic induction of the Kynurenine pathway (KP) is a key foundation for the progression of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) to Long COVID (LC) and infectious mononucleosis (IM) to Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). Our goal is to identify the shared pathophysiologic mechanisms that predispose a subset of individuals exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and primary Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infections to these Post-Acute Infectious Fatigue Syndromes.
 


The trailer is a bit hectic.
Quotes that I liked:

> What if this doesn't work?​
> I thought you were a radical crip?​
​

> If people would hear this story they'd be inspired.​
> Inspired to do something? Or just inspired?​
​

Info from Wilipedia:
en.wikipedia.org

Judith Heumann - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org


Judith Ellen Heumann (/ˈhjuːmən/;[2] December 18, 1947 – March 4, 2023) was an American disability rights activist, known as the "Mother of the Disability Rights Movement".[3] She was recognized internationally as a leader in the disability community.​
​
Heumann was a lifelong civil rights advocate for people with disabilities.[4] Her work with governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), nonprofits, and various other disability interest groups significantly contributed to the development of human rights legislation and policies benefiting children and adults with disabilities.​
​
Through her work in the World Bank and the State Department, Heumann led the mainstreaming of disability rights into international development. Her contributions extended the international reach of the independent living movement.[5]​

 
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