Overview

How survivors of the Covid-19 pandemic battling long-term disabling conditions are fighting for recognition and research—and helping to transform healthcare for many overlooked diseases. To the world’s public health authorities, Covid-19 would be either a deadly disease for some or a simple respiratory illness for most, its symptoms clearing up in just a matter of weeks. But then tens of millions around the world got sick and stayed sick. With scientists and doctors caught off guard, these Long Covid patients often found solace only with one another, organizing support groups across oceans and continents while ill in bed. In The Long Haul, CNN journalist Ryan Prior weaves his own life, the stories of activist patients, and the latest science into a captivating tale of regular people crying out for care that actually works. What Covid “long haulers” found was that their new illness was not so new. In fact, it resembled other post-viral syndromes: difficult to treat and neglected by science. In riveting and accessible prose, Prior follows an innovative band of patients who took matters into their own hands and researched the disease themselves, thereby flipping the script and illustrating a new paradigm for research. In these unprecedented times, the CDC and the WHO came to them. As Covid continues to circulate, its long-term effects could grow as well, weighing on the healthcare system for decades to come. But, as Prior shows, getting Long Covid  treatments right could help revolutionize care for all complex and chronic illnesses.

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"""Carefully constructed, beautifully written, and well documented and researched, The Long Haul compiles narrated accounts of people living with COVID’s long tail, unraveling the history, the science, and the politics involved in this chronic condition. Prior shines a spotlight on the aftermath of Long COVID and gives voice to the millions affected worldwide, challenging researchers to increase their awareness of research done on other post-viral illnesses. The volume makes a call to action for health care providers and patient-rights and advocacy groups to bond together, find support in each other, and take more active roles in their own patient-centered care, affecting study design and health care policy reform."" —Choice"

"""Carefully constructed, beautifully written, and well documented and researched, The Long Haul compiles narrated accounts of people living with COVID’s long tail, unraveling the history, the science, and the politics involved in this chronic condition. Prior shines a spotlight on the aftermath of Long COVID and gives voice to the millions affected worldwide, challenging researchers to increase their awareness of research done on other post-viral illnesses. The volume makes a call to action for health care providers and patient-rights and advocacy groups to bond together, find support in each other, and take more active roles in their own patient-centered care, affecting study design and health care policy reform."" —Choice “Prior’s striking narrative tells the political story of long COVID, beginning with patient organizing from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and weaving this narrative together with his personal story of living with a chronic post-viral condition.” —The Lancet"

Author Information

Ryan Prior is a journalist and former Journalist-in-Residence at the Century Foundation. He covered the COVID-19 pandemic as a features writer for CNN and writes the Patient Revolution column for Psychology Today. He has also written for USA Today, STAT, the Guardian, and the Nation. He directed the documentary Forgotten Plague, is a board member at the ME Action Network, and was a Stanford Medicine ePatient Scholar.

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