Native America Calling: Sometimes, COVID doesn’t go away

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Wednesday, March 26, 2025

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Sometimes, COVID doesn’t go away

Vaccines for the coronavirus have reduced the scope and severity of COVID-19 infections, but for as many as a third of the people who contract COVID, symptoms of the disease persist and cause potentially disabling affects day after day.

Long COVID affects as many as 23 million Americans. Symptoms include persistent headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, and memory and concentration problems. In addition to the personal and medical burdens, several studies indicate the global financial drain from long COVID is anywhere from $1 trillion to $6 trillion.

The Donald Trump administration just announced it is closing the federal office that facilitates research and information-sharing among medical institutions on long COVID.

Idaho National Guard medical and dental citizen-Soldiers and Airmen teamed up with healthcare personnel from the Nez Perce Tribe as part of a larger effort to recover from a surge of COVID-19 cases in northern Idaho in 2021. (U.S. National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Becky Vanshur)

Guests on Native America Calling

Rebecca Nagle (Cherokee), writer, advocate, host of the podcast This Land, and author of By the Fire We Carry

Johnnie Jae (Otoe-Missouria and Choctaw), host of the podcast Talking in the Footsteps of our Ancestors and founder of Grim Native

Rita Bilagody (Navajo), activist and grandma

Troy Montserrat-Gonzales (Lumbee and Chicana), mental health therapist and health care consultant

Dr. Ivy Hurowitz, associate professor Division of Infectious Diseases at University of New Mexico Department of Internal Medicine

Dr. Douglas Perkins, professor of Medicine and director of the Center for Global Health in the University of New Mexico Department of Internal Medicine