March is
Long COVID Awareness Month!
March 1st: Long COVID Awareness Month Begins
March 15th: Long COVID Awareness Day
March 15th-21st: Long COVID Awareness Week
What is Long COVID Awareness Month?
Long COVID Awareness Month is a time for everyone impacted by Long COVID to come together globally in coordinated awareness and action. Patients, caregivers, families, friends, community allies, public health leaders, clinicians, researchers, and others will raise awareness this March in whatever ways they can. Six years into the pandemic, we continue to advocate for stronger public awareness and education, robust clinician training, coordinated and accessible care, meaningful and inclusive research, effective treatments and cures, and comprehensive social and support services. We advocate to advance public health, save lives, and drive change in long-neglected areas. We continue to fight for our lives. We advocate to educate. We educate to drive solutions.
The COVID-19 Longhauler Advocacy Project (C19LAP) has developed the following calendar of events and participation guide to help individuals, advocates, and communities prepare and participate. Spoon-saving and accessibility matter. To reduce strain, consider preparing posts, materials, and outreach drafts in advance and scheduling them throughout March, allowing you to direct more spoons toward meaningful participation. We need your voice.
We look forward to standing in unity with you all this March. #LongCOVIDAwareness #LongCOVID #OneInfectionAway #LongCOVIDHeartBeats
Long COVID Background:
Long COVID is a serious, chronic, disabling, and potentially fatal condition that can follow even mild COVID-19 infection.
It is not rare. It is not resolved. And it is not behind us.
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By fall 2022, CDC serology data showed that more than three-quarters of the U.S. population had already been infected with SARS-CoV-2. CDC data from the same period showed approximately 1 in 5 reported developing Long COVID. That translates to tens of millions of people in the U.S., and hundreds of millions globally, living with Long COVID, and we are now six years into the pandemic.
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Since 2020, U.S. disability rates have risen by more than 35%, with millions more now living with functional limitations. Labor force data reflect the same trend, with substantial increases in the number of disabled individuals participating in or exiting the workforce. Data from 2022 showed Long COVID may account for 15% of unfilled jobs nationally, contributing to ongoing workforce strain.
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Children are not spared. NIH RECOVER-Pediatrics estimates suggest Long COVID may affect approximately 14% of adolescents and up to 20% of school-aged children after infection. Analyses indicate Long COVID may now affect more children than asthma, historically the most common chronic pediatric condition, underscoring the scale of this crisis.
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COVID-19 infections and Long COVID lead to immune dysregulation, autoimmune disease, cognitive decline, cardiovascular disease, organ damage, autonomic dysfunction, neurological impairment, cancer, and increased mortality. National mortality surveillance has identified thousands of U.S. deaths with Long COVID noted on death certificates — a figure experts acknowledge is a substantial undercount.
Six years into the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, incidence remains ongoing. Reinfections continue to increase cumulative risk. Long COVID is not resolving; it is sustained and growing. This represents one of the most significant public health and disability crises of our lifetime. Long COVID strains families and caregivers, disrupts education, pressures healthcare systems, challenges disability infrastructure, and threatens long-term economic stability. Yet we still lack approved treatments or cures.
Evidence-based education and consistent public health messaging are among the most immediate, scalable tools available to strengthen prevention, accelerate progress toward therapies, and improve clinical recognition and care. Better awareness improves surveillance. Better data drives better research. Better research accelerates solutions. Patient partnership ensures real-world impact drives real-world solutions.
This March, we raise awareness. We raise visibility. We raise expectations. Join us and spread the word!
Because everyone is #OneInfectionAway.
Please also head to the resources tab at the top of this page for more educational materials and resources on Long COVID.
Calendar of Events
Save the Dates
March 1:
Change Your Profile Picture / Add New Long COVID Awareness Frame
March 2:
COVID Memorial Day
March 9:
Post to Socials: Pediatric Awareness Coloring Prompts & Pages / Share credible articles related to Long COVID in children
March 14:
Long COVID Memorial Day
March 15:
Light It Up Teal / Post to Socials Prompt 1: I’ve been living with #LongCOVID since…
March 16:
Post to Socials Prompt 2: 5-Star Rating the Response of the U.S. Government
March 17:
Post to Socials Prompt 3: Message to Clinicians and Researchers
March 18:
Post to Socials Prompt 4: Why the Public Should Take COVID-19 & Long COVID Seriously
March 19:
Post to Socials Prompt 5: Living with Long COVID Means…
March 20:
Post to Socials Prompt 6: I Mask Because…
March 21:
Rest & Repost #LongCOVID Content Across Social Media
Fact of the Day Topics & Posting Schedule
Posts will go live at midnight daily on YouTube, and across our social media channels after 6:30am EST. Please like, comment, and repost daily!
March 1: Long COVID: The Cardiovascular System
March 2: Long COVID: The Immune & Lymphatic System
March 3: Long COVID: The Nervous System
March 4: Long COVID and Vaccine Injury: Understanding the Difference
March 5: Long COVID: The Hematologic System
March 6: Long COVID: A Leading Cause of Disability
March 7: Long COVID: Workforce Impact
March 8: Long COVID: The Reproductive System
March 9: Long COVID: Pediatric Health
March 10: Long COVID: Sensory and Vestibular
March 11: Long COVID: Clinical Documentation
March 12: Long COVID: The Digestive System
March 13: Long COVID: Viral Persistence & Reactivation
March 14: Long COVID: Mortality
March 15: Long COVID: Adult Prevalence and Data
March 16: Long COVID: What Is It?
March 17: Long COVID: Underlying Mechanisms
March 18: Long COVID: Reinfection Risk
March 19: Long COVID: Prevention & Treatment
March 20: Long COVID: Education & Clinical Training
March 21: Long COVID: Research Priorities
March 22: Long COVID: Patient-Led Advocacy
March 23: Long COVID: The Musculoskeletal System
March 24: Long COVID: Neuropsychiatric Health
March 25: Long COVID: Caregivers
March 26: Long COVID: The Renal System
March 27: Long COVID: The Endocrine System
March 28: Long COVID: The Integumentary System
March 29: Long COVID: Community Allies
March 30: Long COVID: The Otolaryngologic (ENT) System
March 31: Long COVID: The Respiratory System
Every Day Actions
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Share C19LAP's Fact of the Day on social media. Use #LongCOVID & #LongCOVIDAwareness in your posts. (Additional: #OneInfectionAway, #LongCOVIDHeartbeats)
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Elevate the stories, research, participation opportunities and posts using the above hashtags
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Prepare for Long COVID Awareness Week Actions
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Send letters to governors, Congress, the President, HHS, state departments of health, media, public health agencies and medical schools, and more!
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Participate in any local / ongoing actions and help spread the word about them (i.e. meetings, street teams, light up events, and beyond)
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Volunteer to be an organizer or participant in potential events
Take Action for Long COVID Awareness Month
Follow Us on Social Media and Share Our Fact of the Day Daily Throughout March
Every day in March, we’re releasing a Long COVID Fact of the Day video to educate, inform, and drive solutions.
These daily posts are designed to be clear, evidence-based, and shareable — but their impact depends on you.
We encourage you to:
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Share or repost the daily video across your platforms
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Like and comment to increase visibility in social media algorithms
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Tag friends, clinicians, policymakers, researchers, and media
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Add your own lived experience or perspective to the conversation
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Elevate the content in any way you can across platforms
Daily posts will go up on our socials around 6:30 AM EST daily. You can also find them on our YouTube channel.
Private Facebook Group | Public Facebook Page | Instagram | TikTok | Bluesky | X | LinkedIn | YouTube
Engagement matters. Visibility drives awareness. Awareness drives action.
Please try to like, comment, and share each post, especially as we fight Long COVID censorship. Use hashtags #LongCOVID and #LongCOVIDAwareness on your posts with additional options being #OneInfectionAway. Using the same hashtags helps the topic trend, and connects the community online. Tag us and be sure to follow us!
We Need Organizers in Every State — And Participants to Support Them!
Long COVID Awareness Month only moves if people move it.
We are identifying state organizers to lead efforts locally and we need participants ready to support them.
State Organizers coordinate meetings with officials, lead Street Teams, secure Light It Up Teal commitments, hold prep calls, and report outcomes to C19LAP. They work directly with us on strategy and materials.
Participants attend meetings, share lived experience, distribute masks and resources, recruit others, and amplify efforts using #LongCOVID and #LongCOVIDAwareness.
Every state needs leaders. Every leader needs a team. Volunteer today!
Participate in Long COVID Awareness Week Social Media Actions
This March, join us for Long COVID Awareness Week (March 15–21) as we take coordinated daily action to make this crisis impossible to ignore!
Across your social media channels and across the community, daily coordinated social media actions will occur, with a specific topic per day! We have developed posters that you can print and use or edit online. We ask you share a picture of yourself with the poster, or just the poster itself, and utilize the verbiage outlines in our directions (below). Make sure to use #LongCOVID and #LongCOVIDAwareness in your posts and support other posts! You can search these hashtags on social media to find others! We have also provided sample language to use in your posts. We do this to drive recognition, accountability, prevention, research, and real solutions.
Daily Actions
Use the hashtags, tag us, like, comment, and share our posts and other posts from members in the Long COVID community and be loud!
Sunday March 15:
I have had Long COVID Since (enter date)
Monday March 16:
Rate the government's response to Long COVID from 2019-present (enter response)
Tuesday March 17:
Messages to clinicians and researchers (share your story)
Wednesday March 18:
Why should the public take COVID-19 and Long COVID seriously (enter response)
Thursday March 19:
Living with Long COVID means (enter response)
Friday March 20:
I mask because (enter response)
Saturday March 21:
Rest and repost/ amplify others posts from throughout the week
Pre-made Template (30 seconds)
Additionally, we are calling on clinicians, researchers, public health professionals, and academic leaders to write and share Dear Colleague letters on Long COVID within their institutions and professional networks. Dear Colleague letters are a powerful way to elevate awareness, drive education, and catalyze action. When clinicians and professionals speak directly to their peers, it helps break silence, challenge misinformation, and move Long COVID from the margins into mainstream practice, education, and policy.
Pre-Made Template w/ Customization
Send Letters to Those Who Can Drive Change and Bring Awareness
We are asking community members to write and send letters to decision-makers, institutions, and media outlets to help secure meetings, commitments, and visibility during Long COVID Awareness Month in March and beyond. You can use one of our pre-written templates or customize your own message. Letters can be sent by email, physical mail, our click to send option, or all!
30-Second, Click-to-Send Letter: Governor, Congress, President
Write Public Officials (Print, sign, & mail)
Write a Dear Colleague Letter
Help Support Patient-Led Solutions for Long COVID- Create a Campaign or Donate
Why Patient-Led Work Matters
For six years, patients on the front lines, with lived experience, have identified and elevated gaps across sectors — from clinician education and healthcare access and delivery to diagnostics, documentation, surveillance, research, and public communication. We have exposed systemic failures that continue to leave patients without recognition, care, or coordinated response. The COVID-19 Longhauler Advocacy Project, founded and led by patients on a volunteer basis, has been the catalyst for this action, but our work and responsibility have grown exponentially. C19LAP has built a longitudinal cross-sector framework to ensure Long COVID efforts continue moving forward, but without proper support and resources, sustainability — let alone the growth required to deliver what is needed — moves further out of reach.
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Over the last six years, C19LAP’s experience and direct involvement with major public health associations, researchers, clinicians, and federal and state leaders has given us a comprehensive understanding of this crisis. We continuously integrate community feedback and identified needs from our 60 chapters across every U.S. state and territory. This vantage point allows us to develop strategy and cross-sector coordination others cannot — but we lack the resources required to facilitate the scale of action now needed.
Sixty million people in the U.S. have some form of Long COVID, with incidence continuing to rise with reinfections and new infections. Since 2020, U.S. disability rates have risen 35%. Thousands have died from Long COVID and millions more from acute COVID-19. Fragmented and unchecked systems will continue to leave patients behind unless patients have the resources needed to ensure their voices are present not just as a checkmark for inclusion, but as genuine, involved, equal partners in solutions that shape our futures. Evidence shows outcomes improve when programs are built with patients, not just for patients. Help us continue to represent, advocate, and fight for our futures.
How You Can Help
This campaign invites you to support patient-led solutions at scale:
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Create your own campaign (use the button inside the link to Zeffy below) with the goal of $1,500. Share it across your social media channels, with your friends, families, and beyond. Ask them to support you or a loved one with Long COVID this #LongCOVIDAwareness Month.
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Give a one-time $15 donation today
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Give a one-time donation in any amount today
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Give $15 on the 15th each month
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Give $15 every 15 days (15th & 30th)
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Share this campaign broadly and ask others to support our work
Every contribution helps sustain work that improves outcomes, accelerates solutions, and ensures patients are not excluded from decisions that affect their lives. This is a long-term public health crisis that requires long-term, patient-led solutions.
Donate by Check: COVID-19 Longhauler Advocacy Project, Inc.
P.O. Box 305, 7491 N Federal Hwy C5, Boca Raton, FL, 33487
The COVID-19 Longhauler Advocacy Project is a patient-led Long COVID 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (FEIN 88-1861776)
Your support helps C19LAP develop, deliver, and sustain:
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Public, clinician, and academic education to improve prevention, early recognition, accurate documentation, clinical decision-making, access to support services, and patient outcomes, while advancing care coordination and practice change to reduce diagnostic delays, medical gaslighting, and prevent avoidable patient harm, alongside the development of patient-created, multidisciplinary resources that integrate clinical, scientific, policy, and lived-experience knowledge.
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Federal, state, and local coordination across agencies and sectors to align public health, healthcare, research, and policy efforts; national coordination of Long COVID Awareness Day and Month actions to amplify consistent messaging and engagement; and community mobilization through 60+ state and community-based chapters, including peer support infrastructure, volunteer training, local leadership development, and national reach.
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Patient-centered research agenda-setting and translation, with patients identifying priority areas of investigation in Long COVID and serving as partners in brainstorming, study design, recruitment, facilitation, analysis, and dissemination — ensuring science is informed by lived experience and implemented in real-world care — alongside relationship-building and action facilitation among patients, caregivers, clinicians, researchers, public health leaders, and lawmakers.
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Prevention and risk-reduction initiatives, including mask distribution and education, to reduce infection, reinfection, and downstream Long COVID burden, alongside public trust-building and stigma reduction through consistent, evidence-based messaging.
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Rapid response to emerging research, policy changes, public health announcements, and crises affecting the Long COVID community, combined with broad, comprehensive advocacy representing priorities from communities across the U.S., informed by years of Long COVID work and established cross-sector relationships, as well as real-time problem-solving for patients and caregivers and routing individuals to trusted resources and information.
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A sustained presence at public health conferences to reach thousands of stakeholders — including clinicians, researchers, medical schools, legislators, departments of health, community organizations, religious institutions, and others — to educate them about Long COVID and COVID safety, strengthen media and advocacy capacity, and speak directly about the education, research, and community needs required to drive and deliver meaningful change.
Add the Long COVID Awareness Frame and Change Your Profile Picture
Join the global Long COVID community this March by updating your profile picture with the official Long COVID Awareness Month 2026 frame.
A simple profile change sends a powerful message. It shows solidarity with millions living with Long COVID, honors those we’ve lost, and increases visibility across platforms where awareness is still urgently needed. When thousands of profiles change at once, it creates momentum, sparks conversations, and demonstrates the scale of this ongoing public health crisis.
You can update your photo here (located mid-page) for quick access. If you have difficulty using that method, we’ve also created a C19LAP Canva option to make it easier and more accessible.
Add the frame. Tag your posts with #LongCOVID and #LongCOVIDAwareness. Invite others to join you. Tag us!
Visibility drives awareness. Awareness drives action.
Light It Up Teal for Long COVID Awareness
Light It Up Teal is a global visibility action held during Long COVID Awareness Month.
Teal is the official awareness color for Long COVID. By lighting homes, buildings, and shared spaces in teal, we create a visible, unified show of solidarity for the millions living with Long COVID.
You Can Light Up:
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Homes, apartments, porches, or balconies
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Windows, doorways, or entryways
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Yards, walkways, fences, or shared outdoor spaces
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Small businesses, schools, libraries, or community centers
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Indoor or outdoor spaces — whatever is accessible to you
Big or small. Public or private. Simple or elaborate. Light It Up Teal and help shine a light on Long COVID.
You Can Use:
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Teal string lights or fairy lights
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Porch, pathway, or landscape spotlights
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A teal bulb or lamp in a window
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A short strand of teal lights
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A teal lava lamp, desk light, or ambient light
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Even lighting one visible room
Include Long COVID Kids in the Conversation
Children living with Long COVID deserve to be seen and supported. These pages provide a safe, creative space for adolescents to express how Long COVID affects how they feel, think, and experience the world through coloring, drawing, and storytelling.
We encourage parents and caregivers to offer age-appropriate conversations and emotional support during Long COVID Awareness Month and beyond. With permission and supervision, artwork may be shared online (we recommend disabling comments), displayed at home or school, or turned into cards for other children living with Long COVID.
This action centers visibility, validation, and community for our youngest voices.
Get Your Long COVID Awareness Gear!
The Long COVID Awareness Shop hosts a variety of women's, men's unisex, and kids awareness apparel from t-shirts, tanks, sweat shirts to other items such as well as garden flags, water bottles, pins, wristbands and more!
Long COVID awareness gear makes the invisible visible. Wear it in the community, at work, at school, during doctor’s appointments, and at Long COVID awareness and advocacy events to educate others, break the ice in clinical settings, and signal that Long COVID is real and ongoing. Visibility enhances recognition, reduces stigma, sparks conversation, and strengthens collective presence — turning everyday moments into opportunities for awareness and change.
Download Graphics
Follow Us and Stay Connected
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