How many Long Covid disabled are acceptable?

[Whyhunters]

I don’t understand the lack of outrage or action.

The ONS mention numbers like 6-800,000 people with LC …

Will it take someone very famous or close to govt like Carrie getting LONG COVID for the government to start treating long Covid disability with the seriousness it deserves?

Maybe if she is too ill, breathless, fatigued and in pain to do her normal day to day activities… maybe if she is unable to…

• meet and greet VIPs
• shag Boris
• look after her child
• go to work
• socialise with her friends
• cook Boris’ venison dinners
• attend appointments
• deal with loud noises and stress
• stay awake

Bearing in mind she might not improve for a couple of years (ever?) Will she have to wait many many months to access any support? Meantime she is running out of cash, her friends are fed up with her being tired and her kids aren’t seeing anyone either because she’s too sick to take them out?

Will we THEN reintroduce masks and social distancing?

Or do we have to wait for one of Boris’ children to get Long Covid before appropriate action is taken?

Before companies try to force sick people back to work? Sack them for being too ill to work?

Will Carrie have to try to claim PIP I wonder?

Do others feel this needs more consideration or are you just relieved this isn’t happening to you or your family?

YABU on two counts.
If masks or social distance worked, it would have done so by now. They are little more than a sop to make people feel that they are doing something.
Boris has form for jettisoning sick wives - Carrie will know this as left Marina while sick with cancer to shack up with her.

Ah I think you've started from a false premise. There are no shits given about disabled people. Why would disabled through covid be different?

@PastMyBestBeforeDate

Ah I think you've started from a false premise. There are no shits given about disabled people. Why would disabled through covid be different?

Pastmybestbeforedate is right. The government give zero fecks about disabled people.

Also Theoretical-poorer-long-covid-Carrie could try to apply for PIP, she most likely wouldn't get it. The majority of disabled applicants, even when supported with medical evidence, do not receive PIP unless they appeal.

The thing with being incredibly wealthy though is that Boris (and the rest of the Etonians who lead our country) will have no concept of the consequences of being too ill to work or to look after kids- he has family money and never even has to think about it and there are nannies and boarding schools for childcare. He lives in a different world.

Also masks and social distancing have been shown to reduce transmission so they are worth re-implementing.

If masks or social distance worked, it would have done so by now. They are little more than a sop to make people feel that they are doing something.

This is utter bollocks. Have you actually read the evidence?!

YANBU at all OP (long covid sufferer here - I am youngish and otherwise healthy but it has ruined the past year of my life). Sadly @PastMyBestBeforeDate is spot on though.

Well they've never cared about post viral chronic fatigue sufferers, so why should they about long Covid? At least it's getting a special title and isn't just being grouped in with CF.

our local hosp has a long covid research/therapy unit and they've concluded that most people get better within 12 weeks with normal care and exercise.

Their advice is to be double jabbed, wear a face mask in public buildings and only socialise outdoors. exercise outside. keep bmi below 25. eat plenty of fresh fruit & veg, don't smoke. Don't drink much. Get plenty of sleep. Drink plenty of water. Have booster when called.

The government will start caring when they have to pay for these people’s out of work benefits and long term care. I can’t see how that won’t be an issue…

I have every sympathy with people who have Long Covid. It is a debilitating condition. I had higher hopes that research would be done on this condition as so many seem to have it. However, I have had Hashimotos disease for about 15 years. I know what being ignored and not taken seriously feels like. All I can say to Long Covid sufferers out there is, don't give up hope. If you are newly diagnosed with a chronic/ autoimmune /long term condition please have a look at The Wren Project. They provide a listening service for newly diagnosed people.

Is having long covid classed as a disability?

Luckytattie, I really don't know. Hashimotos is not classed as a disability. I dont know about other chronic, long term conditions.

i agree with @Clumsyvolcano, and that might mean 20+ years down the line.

Only the Covid post viral conditions matter then OP, what about people that have been putting up with similar conditions for years and have been totally ignored, bet you weren't bothered about those.

Agree with PP I have rheumatoid arthritis, no one gives a shit about me. I haven’t been offered an appointment with the rheumatologist for nearly two years. Previously I was seen every six months. There is no budget where I live for Biologics and my disease is progressing unchecked. There was a thread on here not too long ago about a lady with RA who was having to fund her own hip replacement privately. The NHS is not fit for purpose and can’t manage to treat those who are already genuinely chronically ill.

Long Covid is a ticking time-bomb.

@MintJulia Many sufferers have done everything preventative that you describe. It would be funny if it weren’t so bloody tragic! If you think that those of us with Long Covid are anti vacx (sp?) layabouts, who ignore fruit and veg and don’t sleep you are dangerously misinformed... or just choosing to ignore what is in front of you.

These people are parents like you and me who suddenly unable to do a fundraising mud run with their teenagers, or carpool, or read to their children because they’re utterly exhausted. Month after month after month. But beyond that they’re now poor, housebound, bewildered and we are watching others develop LC because they refuse to read the science about vaccines, masks, distancing! And because government is trying to pretend that it’s business as usual.

This disability happens suddenly!

I quite believe that those with other chronic illnesses such as RA, hashimoto’s, CFS etc are ignored. Unless you have an emergency, a visible illness, such as a bone break, or heart disease or cancer - you aren’t ‘seen’ by the nhs. It’s not set up to actually care is it?

Even Long Covid numbers aren’t included in the daily ‘counts’ - positive case numbers mask the number of people who are very ill.

The difference with Long Covid is that people are developing Long Covid every single day at a rate, presumably, much greater than those of other illnesses. So we know from evidence that distancing and even cloth masks prevent larger particle transmission - we can help to prevent a tsunami of disability coming down the road RIGHT NOW.

@Luckytattie

Is having long covid classed as a disability?

Yes, in many cases- any condition which causes significant, long-term (6+ months) impairment in either tasks of daily living or mobility or both is a disability.

Why didn’t people give a shit about post viral fatigue or CFS before this. Oh wait it wasn’t trendy, and wasn’t a way to berate the government either. It was just oh that’s a shame. Plenty of studies have shown long covid isn’t as common as originally thought also. www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/health-58584558.amp

And I’m sorry but it’s hardly a tragedy that some one has to cancel a mud fun run. Try having to cancel your entire life because your diagnosed with a terminal illness and explaining that one to your kids

It doesn't surprise me at all. I have ME and we have been treated like shit for years so LC doesn't surprise me that they will be treated the same way. My ME started after a bout of flu, and I have never fully recovered.

@PastMyBestBeforeDate

Ah I think you've started from a false premise. There are no shits given about disabled people. Why would disabled through covid be different?

This. They prefer not to acknowledge disabled people exist, as far as their concerned we're all faking it and/or just not trying hard enough. So their treatment of long covid sufferers is unsurprising but consistent.

What exactly do you suggest we do about this?

How exactly do you propose a government (of any flavour) hold back an inevitable tide of Mother Nature ?

None of us have an absolute right not to get sick - of almost anything.

Government mandates to “prevent covid” are as realistic as demanding an end to fractures.

Some of us will die from this - no government can outlaw death. Lots of people need to face their own mortality and understand every day is a gift and that there are no guarantees.

Tbh we're horrendously unhealthy as a nation, fat, unfit, drunk and existing on a diet of processed food.

Is it too early for a donut chaser with my whisky?

Long Covid is a ticking time-bomb Spare us with such inane hyperbole. Please.

But as you were asking for a number, 12,496.

Is this like the game at the village fair where if you guess the right number of sweeties in the jar you win a prize?

Sharing incase these help anyone who is suffering with Long Covid

podcasts.apple.com/is/podcast/episode-122-recovery-from-covid-long-haul-with-lieke/id1439580309?i=1000510720985

www.thismighthurtfilm.com/long-covid

There is a lot of scientific evidence now about the neuroscience of chronic pain and conditions (I know I am using the curable app abs Nicole Sachs work to recover from chronic pain). Many people are finding the work equally helpful for things like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, and also now with Long Covid.

It alas seems to be yet another thing that conventional medicine doesn’t know how to treat. Thankfully the pain team at our local hospital are now recommending this work for chronic pain - however it can take years to get that far, and who knows when it might trickle through for LC treatment. I’d definitely recommend checking out this work if you’re suffering with LC.

Also a great article in the Washington post which mentions neuroplastic pain (and the techniques which are also being applied to LC) www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/10/15/chronic-pain-brain-plasticity/