Over the coming weeks and months, first-wavers around the world will observe five years with Long COVID. Many already have. Others with related diseases like myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) — who warned us about the long-term effects of pathogens early in the pandemic —  have been sick for decades.

Despite the overwhelming science finding that COVID-19 impacts nearly every organ system and documenting the risk of reinfection, our federal government and health agency leaders deny and minimize the disease. Abelism and late-stage capitalism propel them as the Trump administration rolls back potential progress and disability protections in what one federal worker recently called “fascist and Orwellian” policies. This moment rings with the chilling reminder of the rise of fascismfollowing the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

Today, the name continues to address widespread denialism and minimization. Often media outlets state that Long COVID lasts for only “weeks or months,” or that most cases “resolve.” Unfortunately, neither is the case.

Many studies have shown that a large majority of people with Long COVID have not recovered. Millions of us are proof that Long COVID can last half a decade, and that it (and related diseases triggered by COVID-19) are lifelong. This mirrors chronic illness from earlier pathogens: a 2021 study about SARS-CoV-1 found that people infected with this virus were still disabled nearly two decades later.