A healthy nation requires collective action, not a “you do you” approach. Please sign this petition to join our community in urging the CDC to prioritize multi-layered prevention of Covid and Long Covid.

The world needs to listen to Covid-19 Long Haulers, parents of children suffering from Long Covid, and millions of families who have lost loved ones. Most Americans don’t even know what Long Covid is because of the lack of public awareness sponsored by the CDC and White House.

The list of pressing requests below came from our community’s comments on a Facebook post asking what they want from CDC Director Mandy K. Cohen. (See their comments here.)

• Americans need protection from airborne infection in healthcare and transportation. CDC should strengthen healthcare infection control and make respirators standard. Masks should be required in mass transit and all healthcare facilities.

• We want the CDC to embrace the multi-layered approach in its public health awareness campaign. Educate the public about the COMBINED benefit of vaccines, clean air, testing, respirator use, isolation when sick, and treatment.

• Wide access to FREE tools is vital for health equity. CDC should recommend that the US provide free rapid and PCR tests, respirators, vaccines, and treatments.

• A policy of “5-day isolation and 10-day masking” is inadequate. It lets employers force workers to return while contagious. Guidance should include at a minimum: Test negative twice before leaving isolation.

• Be proactive in protecting all age groups. Messaging and prevention strategies that target only seniors discriminate against people in other age groups who want and need to avoid infection.

• Acknowledge that current data are incomplete and inaccurate. We back CDC in seeking authority to collect more data, rebuild data infrastructure and expand wastewater surveillance.

• Mobilize the nation to make indoor air safer with ventilation & air purification for schools, workplaces, transport, housing, and other shared indoor spaces.

• Acknowledge that current emergency period tools are not permanent solutions. Support research & development on more effective tools for prevention, diagnosis, surveillance and treatment.

Everyone’s immune system is different and an individual’s immune response to the virus was found to be an underlying cause of Long Covid. Because this virus doesn’t affect everyone equally, those who don’t have severe symptoms and take no precautions allow uncontrolled spread. In addition, new variants evade immunity from vaccines and prior infection. That’s why this horrible disease has already killed millions and at least 65 million people have Long Covid around the world.

Roughly ¾ of US adults are at high risk of severe Covid because of medical conditions, disabilities, racial discrimination, social disparities and environmental factors. That doesn’t even include children. Covid-19 is a leading cause of death and severe sickness in children. Long Haulers, disabled by organ damage and chronic symptoms, are also joining the high-risk community.

Prevention is always better than treatment.

People who get Long Covid require comprehensive care and a complicated diagnostic process. But unlike other wealthy countries, the US doesn’t have safety nets or healthcare for all. Hospital and medication costs can make a person without adequate health insurance homeless. That’s one glaring reason why lack of prevention puts the most vulnerable people in great danger.

We need the CDC to take bold action normalizing prevention instead of normalizing the spread of this rapidly mutating, disabling, and highly contagious virus. No one is expendable.

Please sign this petition.