The press hits are rolling in! The media showed up in a big way yesterday to cover our #MillionsMissing protest in front of the White House.
One day after President Biden declared the “pandemic is over,” our community was at the gates of the White House to send Biden a message that a pandemic of chronic disease rages on. Protesters called on President Biden to declare Long COVID and ME a national emergency, and to provide all the urgent, full-scale resources for addressing the crisis of ME.
We had press coverage in The New York Times, The Hill, MedPage Today, The BMJ, NPR, TIME, and Payday Report! A reporter from the Washington Post, Taylor Lorenz, shared a story about the protest with her 109K followers, and Zeynep Tufekci, a New York Times columnist with 488K followers, tweeted out about the protest. CNN journalist Morgan Stephens covered the protest on her Twitter.
Meanwhile on social media, over 9K people watched the livestream of the protest live on Twitter, and it had over 23K viewers over a 24-hour period. #MEAction’s tweets racked up 1 million impressions over the past 3 days.
You can review some of the amazing press hits here:
The Hill reported on the protest, quoting #MEAction Advocacy Director Ben HsuBorger:
“’We are sick and disabled with ME/CFS and Long COVID but we are here today, putting our bodies on the line, to tell President Biden that the pandemic is not over, that millions of us are being disabled from post-viral disease, and we need urgent action from our government,’ demonstrator and #MEAction advocacy director Ben HsuBorger said in a statement. ‘We are calling on President Biden to declare ME/CFS and Long COVID a national emergency.’”
MedPage Today reported on the protest, quoting #MEAction Executive Director Laurie Jones:
“‘We are here today because this pandemic is not over; there are people that are still sick; millions of people … with ME/CFS have been living with long-term consequences of infection for decades,’ Laurie Jones, executive director of #MEAction, an organization for ME patients, told MedPage Today in an interview. ‘If the government had listened to us years and years ago, then we could be in a very different place, but it ignored us. And so this is a disaster.'”
The New York Times featured Ben HsuBorger in their story about President Biden’s remarks:
“’For us, there is no normal that we can go back to,’ said Mr. HsuBorger, seated in a wheelchair. He had just led a group of patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis, a complex disorder also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, in a protest outside the White House. Many have long Covid. Their T-shirts declared: ‘Still Sick. Still Fighting.'”
New York Times columnist, Zeynep Tufekci, attended the protest and tweeted about it to her 488K followers. She is now working on a more in-depth article about the movement.
Yesterday was a powerful day! We can’t say thank you enough to everyone who showed up in person or online for the protest! And, we’re thinking about all those who are too sick to protest at all. Please rest everyone, and join in again when you can.
This protest is only the beginning of us fighting for the Biden administration to declare ME and Long COVID a national emergency. To capitalize on this press and keep up this fight, make a donation today.
In solidarity,
Adriane Tillman
Public Relations Manager, #MEAction
