Several government resources about accommodations for people with Long COVID have become unavailable in the last week, following purges of government websites and datasets under the Trump administration. These pages offered crucial information about rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for people with Long COVID and their employers.

In 2021, the federal government recognized that Long COVID can be considered a disability under the ADA. Pages and articles on AskJAN, a public-facing website by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Job Accommodation Network, explained how people with Long COVID could use this law to request accommodations that would make their jobs, schools, or other aspects of their day-to-day lives possible.

As of February 11, Long COVID is no longer included in AskJAN’s directory of disabilities. The website’s Long COVID resources — which previously included information about the disease’s legal status, key symptoms, and suggestions for accommodations — are also unavailable. (View an archived copy of AskJAN’s Long COVID landing page here.)

  • FundMECFSOP
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    13 hours ago

    “The erasure of information and resources on Long COVID from government websites is both deeply disturbing and, frankly, unsurprising,” said Dom Kelly, co-founder and president of New Disabled South, in an emailed statement. The erasure follows damaging policies and rhetoric from both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration, Kelly said, as both are responsible for hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 deaths and millions of Long COVID cases.

    Unlike Long COVID information, pages about other specific diseases and disabilities remain available on the AskJAN site.

    Don’t you just love when they decide to erase your disability… Yay, now I have the freedom to starve to death.