@time

So many people are suffering from Long COVID that treatment centers can’t keep up, writes Jamie Ducharme. In many ways, that’s understandable: the diagnosis did not exist before 2020. As many Americans begin to wonder if there’s a light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel, new clinics are continuing to open across the country, an acknowledgment that Long COVID symptoms won’t disappear even if the pandemic fades. Even though there has been progress, medical care has not kept pace with the overwhelming needs of patients, given how many people report months-long waits for care or can’t find it at all. With research about Long COVID and its treatment still in its early stages, there is no guarantee of recovery even for those lucky enough to get into a specialty clinic. Read more about the wait for treatment for Long COVID at the link in our bio. In this photo: Carol Cress, a Long COVID patient at the Benefis clinic in Montana, gets her breathing tested. Photograph by @rebeccastumpf for TIME

February 04, 2022