A number of healthcare workers (HCWs) suffering symptoms of long COVID have been surprised at the difficulties they have faced seeking treatment.

What to know:

• A writer from The Atlantic interviewed over a dozen health professionals with long-haul COVID in the United States and the United Kingdom.

• Clare Rayner, BSc, MCSP, an occupational therapist who is part of a Facebook group of about 1400 HCWs in the UK with long COVID, said that many report skepticism from their peers in the medical community when seeking treatment for their symptoms.

• The Long Covid Physio association was created by and for physiotherapists with long COVID. Among its co-founders are Darren Brown, PT, and Daria Oller, PT, DPT, who were frustrated by the advice they were given to address their symptoms of fatigue.

• According to Brown and Oller, commonly given advice that patients with long COVID should exercise to combat fatigue could potentially lead to harm, as with patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.

• Other HCWs shared that they decided to leave medicine because of their ongoing symptoms or due to their feeling that the healthcare community did not do enough to acknowledge their symptoms.

This is a summary of the article, “Even Health-Care Workers With Long COVID Are Being Dismissed,” published by The Atlantic on November 24. The full article can be found on theatlantic.com.

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