Washington Post: In communities of color, long-covid patients are tired of being sick and neglected

In communities of color, long-covid patients are tired of being sick and neglected

Regular link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/05/28/long-covid-patients-of-color-black-latino/

Gift link (no paywall for 2 weeks): https://wapo.st/3wSGcYO

Further down in the article there's a quote from Chimére Sweeney, a name some folks may recognize from her volunteer work with #MEAction. I think she was a speaker at one of the Millions Missing demonstrations? Anyway, here's a link to one interview that I found:
https://casw.org/news/patient-advoc...sent-more-diverse-perspectives-on-long-covid/

I want to add a note to say that probably almost everyone who gets Long Covid or ME/CFS, regardless of race/sex, has a hard time finding a doctor, getting a diagnosis, and finding any treatment that even partly helps the symptoms.

This article is about how, statistically, there's an extra degree of difficulty for certain groups. And it tells the stories for a few individuals who are in those groups.

When studies find racism or sexism in the health care system it does not mean that white or male individuals have no problems getting health care.

 

Yep. Work being done here in the UK has shown that as well.

"White individuals were approximately 5-fold more likely to be diagnosed with ME/CFS than others; black, Asian or Chinese ethnicities are associated with particularly low rates of ME/CFS diagnoses. This ethnicity bias is stronger than for other common diseases."

Unequal access to diagnosis of myalgic encephalomyelitis in England, 2024, Ponting and Samms

 

Also see People from ethnic minorities seeking help for Long Covid: a qualitative study 2024 Smyth, Chew-Graham et al