UVA Health aids Sen. Tim Kaine with new bill

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) -

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine is seeking the advice of some experts at UVA Health. He wants to spearhead legislation that will help people suffering with long COVID.

Senator Kaine says he wants to hear from frontline workers about long COVID so he can truly make an impact. He had COVID-19 near the beginning of the pandemic, so he says this topic hits close to home.

“I had this nerve tingling phenomenon everywhere 24/7,” Kaine said. “It just has not gone away in two years.”

He suffers from long COVID, though he says it goes beyond simply not feeling well.

“They may need to apply for social security, disability, or they may need other accommodations in the workplace,” Kaine said.

He’s taking action to heal some of this pain through his “Comprehensive Access to Resources and Education (CARE) for long COVID act.”

“We’re also going to do more research funding and we’re going to do more dissemination of information,” Kaine said.

He says there’s still so much we don’t know about long COVID, which is why he is seeking the help from a roundtable of experts at UVA Health. The goal is to help close those information gaps.

“UVA has seen some experiences where people who are really, really like on death’s door from COVID, and from persistent long COVID symptoms, have improved pretty dramatically,” Kaine said.

Kaine says this bill is bipartisan and because of that, he expects it to pass the Senate in the next month or two.

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