March 17, 2025 • 11 mins
On the fifth year anniversary of COVID, a lot of us are looking back, and more research is coming out. One thing the research indicates is that women are more prone to long COVID. What is it? And how does it relate to society's continued erasure of women's pain?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Sandy and Samantha. Well kome stuff. I
never told you a protection of iHeart Radio and welcome
to another Monday many. Today's date is March eleventh, twenty
twenty five, which, by the way, I got a very
(00:27):
interesting scam text today that told me my car had
like run a red light somewhere, and I was like,
that's really interesting because I haven't driven it in three months.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
There's a lot of those scams going around with like
you didn't pay a toll fine all these things.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Yes, yes, I got one today, but I thought my
car might have been stolen because again I haven't driven
it in three months, so I had to go invent.
It's like, no, it's still there. Just a scam, just
a scam.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
But yes, that is the date, and I'm putting that
on there because a lot of publications, a lot of
media is talking about this. I'm actually surprised about how much,
which I don't know if that's right or wrong to
be surprised by it. But we are entering with the
fifth year anniversary of COVID. We are here. March thirteenth
(01:20):
is my quarantine aniversary, as I call it. I do
have some traditions around it, but people are writing about it,
and I was just curious how things have changed. Have
they changed about what people are talking about when it
comes to COVID and women, And it turns out they
have a little bit. There's actually a lot of interesting
(01:41):
conversations about how it changed women in entertainment and very
niche entertainment. We're not really going to talk about that
here today, but that if you want to look it up,
there's a lot of interesting conversation about that. And if
you've been listening to this show, we were just joking
today about how painful it is for us to listen
to our early pandemic episodes when we were like, uh,
(02:04):
in a week or so, it'll be fine.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
This is in the last thirty days, yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, and then we're like maybe two months.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
To six months, Yeah, everything's the worst.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
And you know, interestingly, Monday Many as a segment kind
of came about because of the pandemic. We were asked
to add another segment, and I remember sitting in a
meeting where some of our higher ups were like, you know, COVID,
everybody's talking about COVID. You should have a like newsy
(02:40):
segment almost, So here we are Monday, many revisiting that.
But that being said, we have talked previously about all
the ways COVID disproportionately harmed women and minorities in terms
of health, in terms of family life, domestic violence, and
in terms of their profession. But one thing that I
(03:01):
have seen a lot written about lately is long COVID
and women. So we actually have talked about this previously too,
but there's been a lot more new research coming out
about it. So women are more likely to suffer from
long COVID, which is when someone experiences a wide range
(03:23):
of persistent symptoms twelve weeks after contracting COVID. Usually the
symptoms are things like brain fog, poor memory, breathlessness, chronic fatigue,
heart racing, and it can lead to more serious things
like a stroke. I was looking at the list the
CDC as a whole page about this. One of the
(03:44):
ones that stuck out to me is a random muscle twitching.
I have experienced that for several years since COVID h
and I've looked it up and I've tried It's like,
is it restless legs? And what is going on here?
Usually happens when I'm trying to sleep. But it is
one of those symptoms long but the symptoms are very
(04:05):
wide ranging. So it's one of those things. They're still
researching it. They're still studying it. It's one of those things.
I feel like you could look at it and be like,
this is me.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I've got this often.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah, But these symptoms can last for three to six months,
they can last for years. There is no known cure,
and it can be really debilitating. A lot of people
have written about it in terms of these publications that
are coming out about how it's impacted their life and
how it's completely changed your life. Somebody wrote that they
(04:38):
feel like they're grieving their old life because it's completely
changed your life. Recent data shows about seven percent of
American struggle with long COVID, and of that is mostly women.
Women are more likely to contract COVID during COVID peaks,
so when it's like really spiking, and that's likely due
(05:01):
to the jobs tasking roles women are more likely to
have so be nurses or teachers or interacting with people
in that way. Trump has said he will eliminate the
Department of Health and Human Services Advisory committee focusing on
long COVID he said he was going to do that
by February nineteenth, and I couldn't find anything else. So
(05:22):
I don't know if this is one of those things
that he actually succeeded in or not. I'm not sure,
but probably he did. Probably he did because a lot
of people got fired. So experts are worried. This is
another case of medical research leaving out women in marginalized folks,
so like, we're not looking into it because it impacts
mostly women in marginalized folks, so it's not hurting men
(05:46):
as much. Therefore, the research is gone, the money is gone,
no one cares. This also has led to a lack
of training in public education, both in terms of professionals
and just regular people. A lot of people don't even
know that they have it. A lot of people don't
even know to diagnose it. A lot of people don't
believe it's a thing, and we'll tell people it's not
(06:08):
a thing even though it is a thing. So it's
sort of a mess. And this leads back into another
thing we've talked about before. We still don't believe women
(06:28):
about their health. We still don't believe them about their pain,
their symptoms. I have to tell you this Women's History month,
multiple emails have come into our our Sminty email box
that have been like, did you know that seventy four
percent of women are still not believed about their health?
(06:49):
And I was like, I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised
at all, but damn that that sucks. But a lot
of women who have been writing about their experience with
long COVID they reported going to ten to twenty doctors.
They were talking about the time and money it took,
(07:12):
and how many of these doctors usually were like I
think you're probably just stressed.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Overweight.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Oh, you're probably overweight.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
It's very exercize.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
The hysteria diagnosis of like oh you just need to
calm down, right is going to be okay? And I
really want to stress this, Like go read the accounts
of these women. This is not I get being stressed
(07:45):
and it does affect your health. This is not that.
This is like serious, I cannot function. Depression can do that.
But to be just so dismissed of no, just go
drink some to you or something.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Have you had any water today? Have you been so
you can't really figure out what's going on because you're
really dizzy and you can't sit see out of your
left eye, But have you had a water?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Have you drink of water? And a lot of women
reported like finding comfort and online communities and being like, Okay,
I'm not the only one that is experiencing this, even
though all these doctors are telling me it's in my head,
I'm not the only one. But yeah, I mean, it
also comes with ableism of just dismissing. A lot of
(08:38):
these people were saying I cannot go about my life anymore,
like I can't do XYZ anymore, and so many of
them being not able to get access to healthcare or
Social Security disability insurance here in the United States, or
Medicare or Medicaid because it's they were just being dismissed
(09:02):
and being told, hey, you're stressed, that's it. And this
also opened up a whole other conversation about accessing healthcare
as trends or non binary and how difficult that is
on top of having a chronic illness or something like this.
And then you know, there's the price of it all,
(09:25):
both in time and money, the pain of being ignored,
and then there's also a whole different conversation that's happening
currently about pregnant women and the COVID vaccine which had
been happening. It was kind of settled, and now it's
been all messed up again, so we'll have to see
(09:50):
how that plays out. But unfortunately, this is a thing
that we don't really understand too well right now. But
I read it framed as a feminist issue of because
more women are impacted, and because all of these research cuts,
(10:14):
these price cuts and things like medicaid and social Security,
it is impacting more women, and it is an unfortunate
building block on the history of ignoring women in terms
of medical research, of ignoring marginalized people in terms of
medical research. But there are people that are doing amazing
(10:40):
things and being real advocates and even in specific niche communities.
So there are people doing this work and it's amazing.
It's just one of those things where you're like, ah,
five years into COVID and here there are but yeah, yeah, listeners.
(11:06):
If you have any resources for us about this, if
you have any thoughts about this or any experience with it,
please let us know. You can email us at Hello
at stuff Oneever Told You dot com. You can find
us on blue Sky at mom Stuff podcast or on
Instagram and TikTok at stuff We Never Told You for
us on YouTube. We have a tea public store and
we have a book you can get wherever you get
(11:26):
your books. Thanks as always too our super producer Christina
or executive producer my indocontributor Joey.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Stuff Will Never Told You is production by Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you can check
out the heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or be listening
to your favorite shows
Hey, this is Sandy and Samantha. Well kome stuff. I
never told you a protection of iHeart Radio and welcome
to another Monday many. Today's date is March eleventh, twenty
twenty five, which, by the way, I got a very
(00:27):
interesting scam text today that told me my car had
like run a red light somewhere, and I was like,
that's really interesting because I haven't driven it in three months.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
There's a lot of those scams going around with like
you didn't pay a toll fine all these things.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Yes, yes, I got one today, but I thought my
car might have been stolen because again I haven't driven
it in three months, so I had to go invent.
It's like, no, it's still there. Just a scam, just
a scam.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
But yes, that is the date, and I'm putting that
on there because a lot of publications, a lot of
media is talking about this. I'm actually surprised about how much,
which I don't know if that's right or wrong to
be surprised by it. But we are entering with the
fifth year anniversary of COVID. We are here. March thirteenth
(01:20):
is my quarantine aniversary, as I call it. I do
have some traditions around it, but people are writing about it,
and I was just curious how things have changed. Have
they changed about what people are talking about when it
comes to COVID and women, And it turns out they
have a little bit. There's actually a lot of interesting
(01:41):
conversations about how it changed women in entertainment and very
niche entertainment. We're not really going to talk about that
here today, but that if you want to look it up,
there's a lot of interesting conversation about that. And if
you've been listening to this show, we were just joking
today about how painful it is for us to listen
to our early pandemic episodes when we were like, uh,
(02:04):
in a week or so, it'll be fine.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
This is in the last thirty days, yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, and then we're like maybe two months.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
To six months, Yeah, everything's the worst.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
And you know, interestingly, Monday Many as a segment kind
of came about because of the pandemic. We were asked
to add another segment, and I remember sitting in a
meeting where some of our higher ups were like, you know, COVID,
everybody's talking about COVID. You should have a like newsy
(02:40):
segment almost, So here we are Monday, many revisiting that.
But that being said, we have talked previously about all
the ways COVID disproportionately harmed women and minorities in terms
of health, in terms of family life, domestic violence, and
in terms of their profession. But one thing that I
(03:01):
have seen a lot written about lately is long COVID
and women. So we actually have talked about this previously too,
but there's been a lot more new research coming out
about it. So women are more likely to suffer from
long COVID, which is when someone experiences a wide range
(03:23):
of persistent symptoms twelve weeks after contracting COVID. Usually the
symptoms are things like brain fog, poor memory, breathlessness, chronic fatigue,
heart racing, and it can lead to more serious things
like a stroke. I was looking at the list the
CDC as a whole page about this. One of the
(03:44):
ones that stuck out to me is a random muscle twitching.
I have experienced that for several years since COVID h
and I've looked it up and I've tried It's like,
is it restless legs? And what is going on here?
Usually happens when I'm trying to sleep. But it is
one of those symptoms long but the symptoms are very
(04:05):
wide ranging. So it's one of those things. They're still
researching it. They're still studying it. It's one of those things.
I feel like you could look at it and be like,
this is me.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I've got this often.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah, But these symptoms can last for three to six months,
they can last for years. There is no known cure,
and it can be really debilitating. A lot of people
have written about it in terms of these publications that
are coming out about how it's impacted their life and
how it's completely changed your life. Somebody wrote that they
(04:38):
feel like they're grieving their old life because it's completely
changed your life. Recent data shows about seven percent of
American struggle with long COVID, and of that is mostly women.
Women are more likely to contract COVID during COVID peaks,
so when it's like really spiking, and that's likely due
(05:01):
to the jobs tasking roles women are more likely to
have so be nurses or teachers or interacting with people
in that way. Trump has said he will eliminate the
Department of Health and Human Services Advisory committee focusing on
long COVID he said he was going to do that
by February nineteenth, and I couldn't find anything else. So
(05:22):
I don't know if this is one of those things
that he actually succeeded in or not. I'm not sure,
but probably he did. Probably he did because a lot
of people got fired. So experts are worried. This is
another case of medical research leaving out women in marginalized folks,
so like, we're not looking into it because it impacts
mostly women in marginalized folks, so it's not hurting men
(05:46):
as much. Therefore, the research is gone, the money is gone,
no one cares. This also has led to a lack
of training in public education, both in terms of professionals
and just regular people. A lot of people don't even
know that they have it. A lot of people don't
even know to diagnose it. A lot of people don't
believe it's a thing, and we'll tell people it's not
(06:08):
a thing even though it is a thing. So it's
sort of a mess. And this leads back into another
thing we've talked about before. We still don't believe women
(06:28):
about their health. We still don't believe them about their pain,
their symptoms. I have to tell you this Women's History month,
multiple emails have come into our our Sminty email box
that have been like, did you know that seventy four
percent of women are still not believed about their health?
(06:49):
And I was like, I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised
at all, but damn that that sucks. But a lot
of women who have been writing about their experience with
long COVID they reported going to ten to twenty doctors.
They were talking about the time and money it took,
(07:12):
and how many of these doctors usually were like I
think you're probably just stressed.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Overweight.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Oh, you're probably overweight.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
It's very exercize.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
The hysteria diagnosis of like oh you just need to
calm down, right is going to be okay? And I
really want to stress this, Like go read the accounts
of these women. This is not I get being stressed
(07:45):
and it does affect your health. This is not that.
This is like serious, I cannot function. Depression can do that.
But to be just so dismissed of no, just go
drink some to you or something.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Have you had any water today? Have you been so
you can't really figure out what's going on because you're
really dizzy and you can't sit see out of your
left eye, But have you had a water?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Have you drink of water? And a lot of women
reported like finding comfort and online communities and being like, Okay,
I'm not the only one that is experiencing this, even
though all these doctors are telling me it's in my head,
I'm not the only one. But yeah, I mean, it
also comes with ableism of just dismissing. A lot of
(08:38):
these people were saying I cannot go about my life anymore,
like I can't do XYZ anymore, and so many of
them being not able to get access to healthcare or
Social Security disability insurance here in the United States, or
Medicare or Medicaid because it's they were just being dismissed
(09:02):
and being told, hey, you're stressed, that's it. And this
also opened up a whole other conversation about accessing healthcare
as trends or non binary and how difficult that is
on top of having a chronic illness or something like this.
And then you know, there's the price of it all,
(09:25):
both in time and money, the pain of being ignored,
and then there's also a whole different conversation that's happening
currently about pregnant women and the COVID vaccine which had
been happening. It was kind of settled, and now it's
been all messed up again, so we'll have to see
(09:50):
how that plays out. But unfortunately, this is a thing
that we don't really understand too well right now. But
I read it framed as a feminist issue of because
more women are impacted, and because all of these research cuts,
(10:14):
these price cuts and things like medicaid and social Security,
it is impacting more women, and it is an unfortunate
building block on the history of ignoring women in terms
of medical research, of ignoring marginalized people in terms of
medical research. But there are people that are doing amazing
(10:40):
things and being real advocates and even in specific niche communities.
So there are people doing this work and it's amazing.
It's just one of those things where you're like, ah,
five years into COVID and here there are but yeah, yeah, listeners.
(11:06):
If you have any resources for us about this, if
you have any thoughts about this or any experience with it,
please let us know. You can email us at Hello
at stuff Oneever Told You dot com. You can find
us on blue Sky at mom Stuff podcast or on
Instagram and TikTok at stuff We Never Told You for
us on YouTube. We have a tea public store and
we have a book you can get wherever you get
(11:26):
your books. Thanks as always too our super producer Christina
or executive producer my indocontributor Joey.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Stuff Will Never Told You is production by Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you can check
out the heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or be listening
to your favorite shows
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