Long COVID leaves thousands of L.A. County residents sick, broke and ignored

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In the three years since Los Angeles County declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency, mask sales have dwindled, unopened tests have expired in their boxes and people have returned to in-person school, work and socializing.But for thousands of L.A.County residents living with the complex, chronic condition known as long COVID, the emergency has never ended.

And as the virus continues to circulate, more people are being forced to reckon with a life-altering yet often invisible disability whose relative newness offers few answers for the future and few avenues for support.“You’re not just becoming disabled,” said Elle Seibert, 31, who has dealt with debilitating fatigue and cardiac symptoms since 2020.“You’re realizing how easily society at large and people in your life will abandon you when you cannot offer them things.”Long COVID is an infection-associated chronic condition, a class of illness triggered or worsened by viral, bacterial or parasitic infections.

Symptoms typically affect multiple organs or body systems, and cluster around fatigue, cardiovascular problems, cognitive issues and pain.“What causes long COVID is an abnormal immune system response [plus] dysregulation of the nervous system,” said Dr.Caitlin McAuley, director of the Keck Medicine of USC’s COVID Recovery Clinic, one of two dedicated clinics in the county (the other is at UCLA).Researchers have also found that long COVID patients are more than twice as likely as people without the condition to have particles of the SARS-CoV-2 virus lingering in their blood — remnants of original infection that could be causing ongoing inflammation.

California California Gov.Gavin Newsom has positioned himself as a national public health leader by staking out science-backed policies in contrast with the Trump administration.Though the condition strikes across age, gender, race, vaccinatio...