Several government resources about accommodations for people with Long COVID have become unavailable in the last week, following purges of government websites and datasets under the Trump administration. These pages offered crucial information about rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for people with Long COVID and their employers.
In 2021, the federal government recognized that Long COVID can be considered a disability under the ADA. Pages and articles on AskJAN, a public-facing website by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Job Accommodation Network, explained how people with Long COVID could use this law to request accommodations that would make their jobs, schools, or other aspects of their day-to-day lives possible.
As of February 11, Long COVID is no longer included in AskJAN’s directory of disabilities. The website’s Long COVID resources — which previously included information about the disease’s legal status, key symptoms, and suggestions for accommodations — are also unavailable. (View an archived copy of AskJAN’s Long COVID landing page here.)
While this information may now be harder to access, people with Long COVID are still legally entitled to accommodations, disability advocates who spoke with The Sick Times emphasized. President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally repeal the ADA or other federal protections for disabled people.
The AskJAN pages were “materials that we use regularly with our patients,” said Dana Barnett, a social work master’s student who works at a Long COVID clinic (and who alerted The Sick Times to the website change). “It’s really disturbing to see that they aren’t there and patients will no longer have access to that important help.”
Also unavailable: blog posts on the AskJAN site about Long COVID, such as an article explaining how people with the disease can request accommodations under the ADA. (Archived copy here.) Other Department of Labor websites related to equal opportunity employment, such as pages connected to the department’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, have similarly gone offline in recent days, a source told The Sick Times.
“The erasure of information and resources on Long COVID from government websites is both deeply disturbing and, frankly, unsurprising,” said Dom Kelly, co-founder and president of New Disabled South, in an emailed statement. The erasure follows damaging policies and rhetoric from both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration, Kelly said, as both are responsible for hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 deaths and millions of Long COVID cases.
Unlike Long COVID information, pages about other specific diseases and disabilities remain available on the AskJAN site. The site’s directory includes other infection-associated diseases, such as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), and Lyme disease.
“It seems like Long COVID has been targeted,” Barnett said. Mia Ives-Rublee, senior director for the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress, agreed that it appeared the Long COVID pages were specifically targeted within broader attacks to programs that support disabled people.
However, current law has not changed, Ives-Rublee emphasized. “Just because [these pages] are down does not mean that they don’t still have the same legal protections,” she said. Similar information about Long COVID on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission website, which is geared toward lawyers, remains available as of February 11.
Trump’s executive orders and actions “do not negate the current laws that legislation has put into place,” including the ADA, Ives-Rublee said.
Karyn Bishof, founder and president of the COVID-19 Longhauler Advocacy Project, similarly said that people with Long COVID are still entitled to request and receive accommodations. “Regardless of Long COVID’s classification, if an individual meets the ADA’s definition of disability, is qualified for their job, and works for an eligible employer, they are entitled to workplace protections,” Bishof said.
For more details about the accommodations process, Bishof recommended chapters 3, 4, 5, 9, and 13 of her organization’s e-book: The Comprehensive Guide to Long COVID.
“As the pandemic continues and more people become disabled, it has become more and more apparent that we really are on our own,” Kelly said. “Public health professionals need to step up, movement activists and organizers need to mask up, and we all need to be in solidarity for those in the Long COVID community.”
The Department of Labor has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Miles Griffis contributed reporting.
The Sick Times will continue covering how the Trump administration’s actions are impacting people with Long COVID. Send us tips and questions at editors@thesicktimes.org, or reach out to Betsy on Signal at betsyladyzhets.25.
All articles by The Sick Times are available for other outlets to republish free of charge. We request that you credit us and link back to our website.