Long Covid Manifesto – Long Covid Awareness Day 

English version

This manifesto was written by numerous associations on the occasion of the Long Covid Awareness Day of March 15, 2025. Do not hesitate to share it and distribute it to the greatest number. Its French translation is available here.

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LONG COVID MANIFEST Covid is not over. Each new variant brings with it a wave of long COVID. There are millions of us in the world, we exist. Long COVID unites us. We currently don’t have a treatment for this systemic disease: mere bandaids can be applied to some of the symptoms. This disease can affect anyone, regardless of age, social class or nationality; women are affected the most, they also face higher risk at work and are often psychologized. Chronically ill and disabled people are at greater risk, and their health issues accumulate. Children also suffer, often in silence. But everyone is at risk, without any excep tion. New cases appear each day, as reinfections occur. 1 in 10 people at least : Long COVID cannot be written in the past tense, even though most institutions have chosen to disappear and minimize the epidemic. You surely know a close one suffering from it. Even if you don’t know it, you could be affected by it too: long COVID also means all the diseases that are induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection. Five years in, we still do not know all the consequences of the pandemic. What we already know should be enough: some died in the acute phase, others later on, or slowly, from the chronic form of the disease and/or of the social death it brings along. We have lost health, jobs, friends, family, social rights... New cases emerge every day. We can’t manage it by ignoring it. As of today, March 15, 2025, 5 years after the start of the pandemic, we are denouncing the lethal silence on the COVID epidemic still going on, and claim our rights. I HAVE THE RIGHT TO TREATMENT AND CARE I HAVE THE RIGHT TO TREATMENT AND CARE :: • Urgent clinical trials focused on the treatment of causes and mechanisms: thromboinflammation, viral persistence, dysimmunity. • Recognition of the possible severity of the disease, whatever shape it takes, and management of the risk of complications. I want doctors to think about the risks of my persistent infection, my life expectancy, as for other chronic diseases. • Biomarkers for diagnosis and monitoring treatment efficacy. • Rapid, effective tests and preventive treatments to limit the damage caused by the infection. • Be treated by trained doctors and nurses, with adapted multidisciplinary care paths, and safe care facilities that don’t make us wander aimlessly from one consultation to the next. I live with long COVID, and I need to be able to be seen by healthcare staff that care more about curing our illness than silencing our complaints.
I HAVE the right to effective prevention I HAVE the right to effective prevention<br /> MEASURES MEASURES ((AND SO DO YOU AND SO DO YOU))<br /> • We should all have the right to breathe clean air indoors, and to use high<br /> quality masks in health care facilities. We don’t want to put ourselves in danger anymore<br /> to access treatment. We also need a viable, robust healthcare system.<br /> • Our children, our friends, our loved ones and our carers all go to schools and<br /> other essential public spaces, which also need to be safe.<br /> • Reliable, comprehensive epidemic monitoring enables us to adapt all these<br /> measures.<br /> • Easy access to preventive treatments for all.<br /> • End of the division of the population into vulnerable / invulnerable groups.<br /> • Extensive Covid information campaigns that take long COVID into account.<br /> The only way to avoid long COVID is not to have COVID.<br /> I can’t afford to suffer from this disease. Can you?<br /> I'' HAVE THE RIGHT BE FREE FROM SOCIAL D I'' HAVE THE RIGHT BE FREE FROM SOCIAL DEA EATH TH<br /> • Social security coverage, sick leave and adapted job environments to enable us to<br /> return to work, when possible, in decent and secure conditions..<br /> • An end to the stigma and dramatization of wearing FFP2 masks everywhere:<br /> we’re all vulnerable to Long COVID.<br /> • Disability rights or benefits, to help us survive until a treatment is available.<br /> We can’t wait more 5 years.<br /> Without your knowledge, it is us, the patients, with no financial resources, who are fighting<br /> for our rights to be recognized, for prevention, for research to progress. We should be able<br /> to focus on recovering just like any other sick person.<br /> In spite of this, we demand everyone’s right to health, to safety, to a life without fear of the<br /> virus.<br /> Time is running out. It happened to me, it happened to millions of people around<br /> the world, and it could happen to you tomorrow.<br /> This is also what unites us. In the face of long COVID, let us be one.