Another Struggle for Long Covid Patients: Disability Benefits

Since she tested positive for the coronavirus in April 2020, Josie Cabrera Taveras has found herself sleeping for up to 15 hours a day, stopping in grocery store aisles to catch her breath, lapsing in and out of consciousness and unable to return to her job as a nanny.

She believes that she is one of thousands, possibly millions, of Americans who may have a condition known as “long Covid.” The Biden administration has said people with the condition could qualify for federal disability protections and benefits, which can include health care, housing and unemployment benefits.

But like many others who may have long Covid, Ms. Taveras, 31, has had a hard time proving it.

Two brain M.R.I.s, several heart ultrasounds, dozens of lung X-rays, two stomach endoscopies, one colonoscopy and multiple CT scans have all provided the same results: Everything looks normal. “It’s something doctors can’t explain yet, what’s happening to me,” Ms. Taveras said.

With no direct medical evidence of her condition, she has been turned down for disability coverage twice. Even a note from a prestigious post-Covid clinic in the Mount Sinai hospital system, attesting that Ms. Taveras “continues to experience daily symptoms and is currently unable to work,” was not enough.

In July, at a White House event celebrating the Americans with Disabilities Act, President Biden promised “to make sure Americans with long Covid who have a disability have access to the rights and resources that are due under the disability law.”

But with no widely agreed-on method of diagnosing the ailment, those who believe they have long Covid are finding it difficult to qualify under a system that is unfamiliar and already tricky to navigate.