I will never forget the week the entire world upended. Nearly three years ago today, many of us journalists were told to gather our materials and report from home for the indefinite future.
I was a green K-12 education reporter, fresh out of graduate school and suddenly tasked with writing two to three stories a day about the hardships students, parents and teachers faced with remote learning, social isolation and looming threats of illness. It was scary. There was so much we didn’t know.
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Three years later, more than 1 million people have died from COVID in the U.S. But the country seems to have largely moved on from the pandemic that changed our entire lives. The federal government will end the COVID health emergency in May. L.A. County is ending it earlier — at the end of this month. There is one group of people, however, who can’t move on: the estimated 15 million people in the U.S. who have long COVID.
In California, 575,000 adults are still suffering from symptoms associated with the disease, like chronic fatigue, along with almost 200 other conditions.
My colleague Jackie Fortiér talked to three people still wrestling with the lingering effects of COVID.
They were personal trainers, therapists and school employees. They were all stripped of their regular lives when they fell ill. Now, they feel abandoned by a world that seems to be turning its back on COVID-19 and all that’s happened these last few years.
Shelby Hedgecock used to be a personal trainer — that is, until COVID impacted her breathing and neurological system.
“We were injured by this virus, and patients are losing hope,” said Hedgecock, an advocate who has had long COVID for three years. “We feel swept under the rug.”
Read more of their stories here.
As always, stay happy and healthy, folks. There’s more news below — just keep reading.
(After you stop hitting snooze)
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Here in the city, we hardly ever think about cows … unless we’re actively thinking about where our milk comes from. Well, cows in Northern California are in danger because of the intense weather we’ve had this winter season. Cattle have been stranded and starving in the snow for weeks. And because the grass is not growing (or its covered with snow), there is little to eat.
But now, these bovines are getting the food they need from state, federal and local officials in Humboldt County with something called “Operation Hay Drop." It’s fed thousands of cattle already. Read NPR’s Kai McNamee story about the importance of these emergency measures.
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