21 February 2026
Higher exposure correlated with higher rates of long covid and lingering illness.
CIDRAP - Workplace exposures tied to higher risk of long COVID Laine Bergeson December 18, 2025 Workers in jobs classified as high risk for COVID exposure had a 44% higher likelihood of developing long COVID than those in low-risk occupations. Some specific workplace conditions were tied to amplified risk: working onsite during the pandemic (57% higher risk than telework), inconsistent use of high-filtration respirators (52% higher risk), and regularly commuting by public transportation (58%). The highest-risk occupations included health care and social workers, teachers, retail workers, transport workers, and security staff.
My letter to reps:
There’s a study that showed that people in high exposure jobs are more likely to get lingering or long covid. Employers should be held accountable for precautions in the workplace. We know that masks, vaccination for covid & flu, and air purifiers reduce transmission. And yet it seems that the opposite is being encouraged, which makes no sense.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.
🗞️ In the news
Polls: 90% of Americans want vaccine access, for US to be global science, tech leader News brief February 10, 2026 Mary Van Beusekom, MS CIDRAP In total, 93% of participants agree every American should have barrier-free access to affordable vaccines. And 92% say policymakers should safeguard access to, and continued health insurance coverage of, vaccines. That proportion includes 85% of Trump voters who support the Make America Healthy Again movement.
Former manager at Amazon says Return To Office was used to push people out without the appearance of layoffs.
AI being used as an excuse for layoffs seems a reasonable assumption. And there are people warning that OpenAI will be running out of money by next year.
