Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Monday Mini: Women and Long Covid

Transcript

Monday Mini: Women and Long Covid · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Sandy and Samantha. Well kome stuff. I
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: never told you a protection of iHeart Radio and welcome
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: to another Monday many. Today's date is March eleventh, twenty
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: twenty five, which, by the way, I got a very
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: interesting scam text today that told me my car had
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: like run a red light somewhere, and I was like,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: that's really interesting because I haven't driven it in three months.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of those scams going around with like
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: you didn't pay a toll fine all these things.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I got one today, but I thought my
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: car might have been stolen because again I haven't driven
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: it in three months, so I had to go invent.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: It's like, no, it's still there. Just a scam, just
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: a scam.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: That's amazing.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: But yes, that is the date, and I'm putting that
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: on there because a lot of publications, a lot of
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: media is talking about this. I'm actually surprised about how much,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: which I don't know if that's right or wrong to
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: be surprised by it. But we are entering with the
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: fifth year anniversary of COVID. We are here. March thirteenth
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: is my quarantine aniversary, as I call it. I do
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: have some traditions around it, but people are writing about it,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: and I was just curious how things have changed. Have
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: they changed about what people are talking about when it
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: comes to COVID and women, And it turns out they
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: have a little bit. There's actually a lot of interesting
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: conversations about how it changed women in entertainment and very
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: niche entertainment. We're not really going to talk about that
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: here today, but that if you want to look it up,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of interesting conversation about that. And if
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: you've been listening to this show, we were just joking
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: today about how painful it is for us to listen
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: to our early pandemic episodes when we were like, uh,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: in a week or so, it'll be fine.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: This is in the last thirty days, yeah.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then we're like maybe two months.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: To six months, Yeah, everything's the worst.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: And you know, interestingly, Monday Many as a segment kind
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: of came about because of the pandemic. We were asked
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: to add another segment, and I remember sitting in a
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: meeting where some of our higher ups were like, you know, COVID,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: everybody's talking about COVID. You should have a like newsy
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: segment almost, So here we are Monday, many revisiting that.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: But that being said, we have talked previously about all
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: the ways COVID disproportionately harmed women and minorities in terms
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: of health, in terms of family life, domestic violence, and
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: in terms of their profession. But one thing that I
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: have seen a lot written about lately is long COVID
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: and women. So we actually have talked about this previously too,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: but there's been a lot more new research coming out
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: about it. So women are more likely to suffer from
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: long COVID, which is when someone experiences a wide range
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: of persistent symptoms twelve weeks after contracting COVID. Usually the
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: symptoms are things like brain fog, poor memory, breathlessness, chronic fatigue,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: heart racing, and it can lead to more serious things
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: like a stroke. I was looking at the list the
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: CDC as a whole page about this. One of the
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: ones that stuck out to me is a random muscle twitching.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: I have experienced that for several years since COVID h
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: and I've looked it up and I've tried It's like,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: is it restless legs? And what is going on here?
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Usually happens when I'm trying to sleep. But it is
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: one of those symptoms long but the symptoms are very
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: wide ranging. So it's one of those things. They're still
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: researching it. They're still studying it. It's one of those things.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: I feel like you could look at it and be like,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: this is me.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: I've got this often.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, But these symptoms can last for three to six months,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: they can last for years. There is no known cure,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: and it can be really debilitating. A lot of people
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: have written about it in terms of these publications that
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: are coming out about how it's impacted their life and
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: how it's completely changed your life. Somebody wrote that they
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: feel like they're grieving their old life because it's completely
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: changed your life. Recent data shows about seven percent of
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: American struggle with long COVID, and of that is mostly women.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Women are more likely to contract COVID during COVID peaks,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: so when it's like really spiking, and that's likely due
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: to the jobs tasking roles women are more likely to
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: have so be nurses or teachers or interacting with people
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: in that way. Trump has said he will eliminate the
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Department of Health and Human Services Advisory committee focusing on
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: long COVID he said he was going to do that
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: by February nineteenth, and I couldn't find anything else. So
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know if this is one of those things
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: that he actually succeeded in or not. I'm not sure,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: but probably he did. Probably he did because a lot
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: of people got fired. So experts are worried. This is
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: another case of medical research leaving out women in marginalized folks,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: so like, we're not looking into it because it impacts
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: mostly women in marginalized folks, so it's not hurting men
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: as much. Therefore, the research is gone, the money is gone,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: no one cares. This also has led to a lack
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: of training in public education, both in terms of professionals
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: and just regular people. A lot of people don't even
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: know that they have it. A lot of people don't
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: even know to diagnose it. A lot of people don't
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: believe it's a thing, and we'll tell people it's not
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: a thing even though it is a thing. So it's
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: sort of a mess. And this leads back into another
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: thing we've talked about before. We still don't believe women
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: about their health. We still don't believe them about their pain,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: their symptoms. I have to tell you this Women's History month,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: multiple emails have come into our our Sminty email box
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: that have been like, did you know that seventy four
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: percent of women are still not believed about their health?
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: And I was like, I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: at all, but damn that that sucks. But a lot
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: of women who have been writing about their experience with
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: long COVID they reported going to ten to twenty doctors.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: They were talking about the time and money it took,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and how many of these doctors usually were like I
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: think you're probably just stressed.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: Overweight.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, you're probably overweight.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: It's very exercize.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: The hysteria diagnosis of like oh you just need to
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: calm down, right is going to be okay? And I
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: really want to stress this, Like go read the accounts
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: of these women. This is not I get being stressed
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: and it does affect your health. This is not that.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: This is like serious, I cannot function. Depression can do that.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: But to be just so dismissed of no, just go
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: drink some to you or something.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: Have you had any water today? Have you been so
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: you can't really figure out what's going on because you're
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: really dizzy and you can't sit see out of your
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: left eye, But have you had a water?
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Have you drink of water? And a lot of women
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: reported like finding comfort and online communities and being like, Okay,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: I'm not the only one that is experiencing this, even
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: though all these doctors are telling me it's in my head,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I'm not the only one. But yeah, I mean, it
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: also comes with ableism of just dismissing. A lot of
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: these people were saying I cannot go about my life anymore,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: like I can't do XYZ anymore, and so many of
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: them being not able to get access to healthcare or
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Social Security disability insurance here in the United States, or
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Medicare or Medicaid because it's they were just being dismissed
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: and being told, hey, you're stressed, that's it. And this
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: also opened up a whole other conversation about accessing healthcare
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: as trends or non binary and how difficult that is
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: on top of having a chronic illness or something like this.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: And then you know, there's the price of it all,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: both in time and money, the pain of being ignored,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: and then there's also a whole different conversation that's happening
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: currently about pregnant women and the COVID vaccine which had
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: been happening. It was kind of settled, and now it's
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: been all messed up again, so we'll have to see
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: how that plays out. But unfortunately, this is a thing
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: that we don't really understand too well right now. But
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I read it framed as a feminist issue of because
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: more women are impacted, and because all of these research cuts,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: these price cuts and things like medicaid and social Security,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: it is impacting more women, and it is an unfortunate
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: building block on the history of ignoring women in terms
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: of medical research, of ignoring marginalized people in terms of
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: medical research. But there are people that are doing amazing
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: things and being real advocates and even in specific niche communities.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: So there are people doing this work and it's amazing.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: It's just one of those things where you're like, ah,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: five years into COVID and here there are but yeah, yeah, listeners.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: If you have any resources for us about this, if
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: you have any thoughts about this or any experience with it,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: please let us know. You can email us at Hello
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: at stuff Oneever Told You dot com. You can find
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: us on blue Sky at mom Stuff podcast or on
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Instagram and TikTok at stuff We Never Told You for
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: us on YouTube. We have a tea public store and
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: we have a book you can get wherever you get
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: your books. Thanks as always too our super producer Christina
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: or executive producer my indocontributor Joey.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Stuff Will Never Told You is production by Heart Radio.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you can check
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: out the heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or be listening
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: to your favorite shows