Pretending to be Well

Although I knew more than most people about Long COVID, I still experienced denial after my first COVID infection left me with long-term symptoms

In December 2023, I went to the Emergency Room for the first time since the pandemic began. I went reluctantly, because I knew there would be no airborne infection control. For years, I’d been an advocate working on COVID and Long COVID issues, and I knew all the ins and outs of the political battles to avoid acknowledging airborne transmission. I knew that, although the WHO had finally, belatedly, admitted that COVID hung in the air for hours and transmitted like smoke, this fact was not reflected by infection control guidance anywhere.

Like most COVID-aware people, I knew the ER was the most dangerous place for a person avoiding COVID; packed to the gills with infectious people, staffed by medics with incorrect ideas about transmission, and the one place you were most likely to fall unconscious or be unmasked against your will. Occasionally, a medically vulnerable person was even put on a psych hold for trying to avoid infection.

But like many COVID-aware people who are also disabled or suffering from Long COVID (a large percentage of them), I was now finding avoiding medical care impossible.