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When it’s Long COVID
For anyone who had COVID-19 and never got back to how they were, for parents who think it is happening to their child, and for the people beside them. This page passes on, by name, what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says: what Long COVID is, the symptoms, why tests can come back normal, how to get ready for an appointment and be heard in it, day-to-day life, work and disability, children and school, and lowering the chance of getting it again. It builds the questions to ask at a visit and prints a card you can show to people. Take only what you need today.
Before anything else
- Chest pain or trouble breathing that is new, sudden or severe? Call 911. This line is ours: CDC’s Long COVID pages list chest pain and difficulty breathing among the symptoms and give no list of emergency signs, and they also say people who have had COVID-19 may be more likely to develop heart conditions and blood clots. Do not wait to find out which it is.
- Still unwell months after COVID? CDC says: talk to your healthcare provider if you have symptoms that last for months after an infection.
- Normal test results do not rule it out. CDC says routine blood tests, chest X-rays, and electrocardiograms may be normal in someone with Long COVID, and that a positive COVID test is not required for a diagnosis.
- Thinking about ending your life? Call or text 988, at any hour.
More help
- Keeping track: the Symptom diary, My medicines and the Energy budget.
- Before a visit: Get ready for your appointment.
- Work: Ask for what helps you work and Applying for disability benefits.
- A child at school: Help at school for your child.
- No insurance, or a bill you can’t pay: When you need a doctor and can’t pay and When a medical bill is too much.
- How you feel: When the heaviness won’t lift, When the worry won’t switch off and When you feel alone.
- Caring for someone: When you’re caring for someone.
- All our free tools.
Other guides on this site that go with this page
Free to read. We chose these ourselves; no professional did. Each guide was written with AI and has not been reviewed by a professional. They are general information, not advice.
- When pain doesn’t go away: pain that has lasted for months: describing it so a doctor hears it, treatments that are not medicine, and what pain does to sleep and mood.
- Migraine and headaches: migraine and headaches: the warning signs, the kinds of headache, triggers, what to do during an attack, and the medicines.
- When something is wrong at work: unpaid wages, unsafe work, harassment or retaliation: which federal office takes which problem, the phone numbers, and how long you have.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor, nurse or lawyer has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 7, 2026 on the Long COVID pages of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov/long-covid): “Long COVID Basics” (updated May 6, 2026), “Long COVID Signs and Symptoms”, “Living With Long COVID”, “Talking with Your Doctor About Long COVID” and “Long COVID Resources” (each updated March 9, 2026), and its one-page “Healthcare Appointment Checklist for Long COVID” (dated 03/12/26); and on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s page “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws” (updated May 15, 2023). What is marked “ours” is our own, including the 911 line at the top and the things to say to someone who has it. A caution about dates: who is advised to get which COVID-19 vaccine is set nationally and can change; we did not read the current recommendation, so ask a doctor or pharmacist. What we left out or did not read: every medicine, supplement, and activity or rest program (CDC’s pages for the public name none); CDC’s pages for health care providers; the support groups’ own sites (CDC lists them and says it does not endorse any); the Social Security and Department of Education documents CDC lists (they would not open for us), and the joint federal guidance on Long COVID as a disability (its page refused us too); how many adults have it; any state’s law; and the EEOC phone line’s hours. We called no number. This page saves nothing and loads no analytics (privacy).