John,

You may have heard that President Biden just tested positive for COVID. Right now there’s a surge happening as a new, more contagious Omicron variant is spreading around the country.

If you’ve had COVID before, you may get re-infected with this variant, known as BA.5. Being vaccinated doesn’t prevent infections, but it does protect people against severe symptoms during the “acute” stage, or the first few weeks.

However, the CDC estimates that each time people get infected, they have a 20-25% risk of developing various disabling conditions known as “long COVID.” This includes people who are otherwise healthy, or who have had mild symptoms during the “acute” stage.

Fortunately, we have multiple tools we can use to keep ourselves, our families, and our communities safe.

Now, each household in the U.S. can request 8 more FREE rapid COVID tests from the federal government at https://www.covid.gov/tests (that’s 16 in total).

If you have health insurance, you can likely request additional free tests from your provider. If you test positive, you can take steps to reduce the risk of long COVID, including requesting anti-viral medications like Paxlovid and resting as much as possible.

Unfortunately, many people can’t take sick days off work, and/or don’t have health insurance. The pandemic keeps worsening inequities, which is why Rashida is fighting with even more urgency for Medicare for All, national paid leave, funding for COVID research and care, and more.

We also have a simple and very effective tool for preventing infections that’s available right now: Masking when in public places. Particularly high-quality masks—such as N95s, KN95s, and KF94s—that fit your face well.

There are many affordable high-filtration masks for kids and adults that you can purchase on https://www.projectn95.org/. Remember: These masks are meant to be used several times and then discarded.

During this surge of the most transmissible variants yet, some experts are recommending that in addition to wearing masks in indoor public spaces, it’s safest to also wear masks while outside in crowded places.

It can be hard to keep track, particularly with so much misinformation out there. We want to keep you informed and equipped with the resources you need during this pandemic. Together, we can keep building a society where all of us can thrive.  

In service,

Team Rashida