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.)
I think it’s ironic that Trump and Musk are trying to implement the kind of shock that might wake someone up and bring them around. If nothing else, they are making clear the absurdity of Government and the contradiction that we call democracy. I think there’s something hideously ironic there.
But that is not to say that I deny the pain and suffering of those who suffer from any kind of disability.