If you have Long Covid, know someone suffering from Long Covid, treat patients with Long Covid, or care about the impacts of COVID on our global health, medical systems, and the economy-- We need you to sign and share this letter to the United Nations asking that they recognize Long Covid Awareness internationally every year as people around the world continue to be infected by COVID.

This is the letter to the United Nations (member state representatives) with links attached for you to review (links will not be included in the letter to the representatives, in hopes that the emails will not be flagged and have a better chance of the letter being viewed by the representatives).

Please review, sign, and share this letter with everyone you know. Thank You—

Your Excellency,

COVID spread swiftly across our globe and is still a threat today. It does not discriminate among nations. The infection’s symptoms continue for many, wreaking physical, economic, and social costs worldwide. This global challenge requires a global response.

On behalf of the estimated 400 million people who have suffered (at some point since COVID started spreading in 2019, with the vast majority still suffering today) from Long Covid, also known as Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC), I call on the United Nations to officially recognize the 15th of March as International Long Covid Awareness Day and the month of March as International Long Covid Awareness Month.

I ask that you propose these observances– and that the General Assembly establish both of these observances, beginning March 2025 (as the date was not established by the original request for March 2024), in a critical effort to share information about Long Covid with the public and to motivate the medical and research communities to take more action in finding a cure and treatments for this profoundly crippling illness.

Long Covid is a disabling sickness with a complex list of over 200 possible symptoms. As explained in Public Herald, “This biomedical syndrome affects multiple organ systems, with evidence of autonomic, vascular, and endothelial dysfunction, viral persistence, capillary rarefaction, impaired cardiopulmonary function, pro-inflammatory and hypercoagulable state, reduced oxygen extraction and abnormalities in T-cells and cytokines.”

The economic costs of Long Covid are expected to severely impact UN member states for years to come. The strain Long Covid is inflicting on our labor markets and medical systems globally cannot continue as is.

As more and more people become debilitated by Long Covid, people are finding themselves in a position where they must work less, can no longer work, are unable to perform daily basic tasks to get through their day, and some have lost their lives to this illness.

Many have taken to organizing themselves while still sick, creating national and international communities of Long Covid sufferers and allies, on whose behalf I write to you today.

There is such a need for assistance for Long Covid patients, Long Covid education programs, advocacy for clean air and prevention, urgent funding for research, and reliable government data — these challenges must first be acknowledged in an effort to ameliorate the physical, mental, emotional, and financial devastation faced by the Long Covid community (adults and children).

As part of its ongoing activism, the Long Covid community recognized International Long Covid Awareness Day for the first time on March 15, 2023 and again on March 15, 2024. International Long Covid Awareness Day has been recognized by various agencies and the media, including the ODEP, the HHS, and the CDC. The date, month, and colors (gray, teal, and black) were selected via online polls that circulated throughout the Long Covid community. The date marks the period when a number of nations first went into COVID lockdown and many were already sick.

"Long Covid is too often left out of the discussion about the negative effects of COVID infections. This day [Long Covid Awareness Day] we act together internationally to show that the impact of Long Covid can no longer be ignored." -Tove Lundberg, former chair of the Swedish Covid Association.

“By August 2024, over 33 million Americans (1 in 10) suffer from Long Covid — including 16% of children. We now know SARS-CoV-2 viral persistence is a likely biomarker and driving mechanism for the disease, yet there’s no RNA viral load blood test, no antiviral treatments, and no emergency measures enacted to fast-track funding. We must open our eyes before our kids' futures are closed forever.” says Joshua Pribanic, founder of LCAP (Long Covid Action Project).

People with Long Covid are still here, still sick, and are still fighting through illnesses and for better health outcomes for all. Please join the fight against Long Covid by recognizing and raising awareness of Long Covid on March 15th and through the month of March, by combining both awareness and actions that will hopefully foster an end to the Long Covid crisis.

I ask that you show the world that our global leaders are committed to galvanizing the public health and medical research communities into collective action against Long Covid.

Thank you,

INTERNATIONAL LONG COVID AWARENESS (ILCA)

**REVISED AUGUST 24, 2024**