Sign On: Don't Restrict COVID Services or Care by Test Results
For all the reasons you can guess...
Hi all -
Life has been… busy.
But I did want to stop by here and share this opportunity to advocate for a key equity issue in COVID care, support and research: ensuring that it is not necessary to have a history of a positive COVID test, since access to accurate testing was and remains limited, and was and is even more limited to people who experience implicit bias, marginalization or barriers to health care. And false negatives were/are real.
Please consider endorsing this statement, and share with others who may be interested. Endorsements can be from individuals or organizations.
It can also be found at bit.ly/covidtestjustice (case-sensitive).
Thanks!
JD
Please fill out the form to endorse the following demand for equity:
Millions of people in the United States need treatment, care and support for COVID -- whether during active, acute infection, or for the vast range of long-term symptoms, illnesses or disabilities triggered or worsened by COVID (sometimes called Long COVID.)
According to an international study coordinated by Patient-Led Research for COVID-19 and other reports, the vast majority of Long COVID symptoms and conditions are experienced at the same rates by those who have had positive test results and those who do not.
However, some clinics and research studies are requiring proof of a positive COVID test.
-- But some of us were first affected when testing was not widely available.
-- Others of us were turned away from testing and care despite our symptoms.
-- Still others got test results that were false negatives.
-- And implicit bias and explicit access barriers affect testing access for low income people, people of color, immigrants, people in prisons, jails and detention centers, people without housing and others.
COVID and Long COVID research, care and services must be open to all who need them, not just to those who were able to access an accurate test during a narrow window of time.
Thank you.
____
For more information:
Denied treatment, some Covid long-haulers could become lifelong-haulers: https://www.statnews.com/2021/01/28/stop-ignoring-undocumented-long-haulers/
Long COVID research:
https://patientresearchcovid19.com/
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.24.20248802v1
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