For These ‘Long Haulers,’ Covid Is Still Taking a Toll

Disability Rap

Today, we continue our coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic and the long-term impacts of SARS-CoV-2 on people’s health and everyday lives. We speak with two contributors to a new anthology by and for the Long Covid community.

We in the disability community know that the pandemic is far from behind us in the United States. Although the numbers have significantly decreased from 2020 and 2021, people are still getting sick from the virus and some still need to be hospitalized.

Although most people who contract SARS-CoV-2 fully recover, some people continue experiencing symptoms long after their initial Covid illness. A new anthology out last month explores the wide-ranging and often debilitating impacts long Covid can have on people’s lives. The Long COVID Reader is a collection of stories, essays, and poems from 45 long-haulers, as they call themselves.

The collection draws works from established writers and poets such as Pato Hebert, Emily Pinkerton, Morgan Stevens, and Nina Storey, as well as from people in other professions. The book reflects broad demographics, diverse skill sets, underrepresented voices, and those with little writing experience. We’re joined by two guests. Mary Ladd is the long-hauler publisher, founding editor, which published The Long COVID Reader. She has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, Playboy Health, and Wildfire Magazine. She’s based in the Bay Area.

Jessica B. Sokol is also with us. Jessica believes Covid-19 hit her in February 2020. She survived intubation on a ventilator. Her first book, For Better and Worse, was published in 2016. Her stories are featured in Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, Music Museum of New England, Forbes Library, and Valley Love Letters project in Northampton, Massachusetts. Her essay, Three Years and Counting, is included in The Long COVID Reader.

Click here to watch the book launch event from Green Apple Books.