Earlier this month, we looked at the question of what Social Security can do for survivors of what's known as “long COVID,” when coronavirus symptoms continue to affect some sufferers of the virus for weeks or months after their initial infection.

President Biden said earlier this summer that long COVID could soon qualify as a disability under federal law.

"We're bringing agencies together 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, which includes accommodations and services in the workplace and school, and our health care system so they can live their lives in dignity,” the president said in July.

“We certainly have seen an increase of claims because of COVID-related issues, including long haulers,” an advocate who handles Social Security disability claims told CNBC this summer. "That person added that while some in that situation have been awarded benefits, “the majority of those have been people with lingering complications from being put on ventilators.”

A recent op-ed chided the government for not doing enough for sufferers of long COVID.

Writing for the Duluth News Tribune, attorney W. Christopher Freiberg called for the government, and specifically the Social Security Administration, to do more for those suffering long-term COVID symptoms.

“President Joe Biden recognized this earlier this summer at a press conference marking the 31st anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. He noted that in some cases, long-haul COVID-19 can rise to the level of a disability that requires workplace accommodations,” Freiberg wrote. “However, the Social Security Administration, which millions of Americans rely on for income replacement when they can no longer work, has remained virtually silent on the subject of long-haul COVID-19.”

He noted that Social Security has long said that to qualify for disability benefits, someone must have suffered their illness for twelve consecutive months.

“We are now seeing COVID-19 long haulers who meet this requirement; and in December, the agency issued an emergency memorandum stating that it will flag disability applications that allege disability due to long COVID-19—but nothing else has come out about how these claims will be reviewed,” he wrote. He went on to accuse the agency of attempting to “shoehorn” long COVID into existing rules about other illnesses.

“This marks yet another failure of the federal government’s response to the pandemic. COVID-19 is a novel disease with novel long-term symptoms, and Social Security must institute new rules immediately to better serve those who can no longer work due to long COVID-19,” he wrote.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist, and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

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