![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/coranvirus-cdc.jpg\")
An image of the coronavirus. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\nAn image of the coronavirus. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n
To Christine Selvidio, a mother of two and former hairdresser, the effect long Covid has on her life \u201cis a loss that healthy people cannot possibly understand.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Selvidio said she wakes up every morning exhausted, dizzy and nauseous. She sometimes wears earplugs around her kids and has to dim the lights in their house. Her muscles are sore, and her joints feel creaky. More than six years after being sick with the Covid-19 virus, Selvidio has to spend most of her time in bed or on the couch, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pain and suffering is a daily walk through the jaws of hell,\u201d she told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee on Friday, as one of two people with the illness asking the committee that day to consider reforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Selvidio got hit by Covid-19 before she knew what it was. She was sick with the virus in January 2020, she said, when the first confirmed cases appeared in the United States. Originally, her illness was mild, and she tried to see fewer clients and work from home. But in 2024, Selvidio said, her \u201cillness won,\u201d when she began to experience worsening symptoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy main symptoms were these vibrations that felt like I was swallowing a phone or plugged into a wall,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then came hallucinations, rashes, fainting and migraines. \u201cNo one believed me that there was something wrong,\u201d she said. It was only when she went to get a gallstone removed that a doctor in New Hampshire suspected she had long Covid.<\/p>\n
Dr. Katherine Menson, a pulmonary and critical care physician at the University of Vermont Medical Center, said that many patients with long Covid originally only had mild to moderate symptoms of the virus. But weeks or months after their original symptoms, people commonly continue to suffer from exhaustion after exercise, brain fog and gastrointestinal issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though millions of Americans have reported living with long Covid, there are no clear-cut diagnostic tests for the illness or widely accepted treatments<\/a>. A 2023 Vermont Department of Health report found that 11% of Vermonters who tested positive for Covid at any point experienced symptoms that lasted three months or longer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Doctors suspect those symptoms come from different mechanisms in the body, like immune system dysregulation, persistent inflammation or persistent viral particles in the body, Menson told the committee.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s just so many symptoms that can present with long Covid,\u201d Menson said. And that makes it harder for doctors to treat the illness, she said.<\/p>\n Ylan Roy, a grandmother and former teacher, said she can no longer walk due to her long Covid symptoms. She uses an electric wheelchair to get around and often feels exhausted after playing with her granddaughter for maybe an hour.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI have to rest all day before and after just to be able to play with her on the floor,\u201d Roy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Roy asked lawmakers to make it easier for people with long Covid to access disability benefits and get extended time off from work. Both women asked senators to consider improving education for doctors and options for in-state medical treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden Southeast, who chairs the committee, told the women that their experiences would inform the committee\u2019s conversations with insurers, the Vermont Department of Health, the Vermont Department of Labor and others.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d like to do what we can to make your lives better,\u201d Lyons said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2014 Charlotte Oliver<\/p>\n In the know<\/p>\n Sen. Ginny Lyons introduced a late amendment to one of the Senate\u2019s big health care reform bills<\/a> on Friday, aimed at tackling an issue with how Medicare patients at rural hospitals are often paying more for outpatient care<\/a>.<\/p>\n Though the federal rule that creates the cost differences has been in place for years, the Green Mountain Care Board and lawmakers are starting to bring close attention to it in the hopes of solving the problem quickly. Just Tuesday, the care board held a nearly three-hour meeting<\/a> of regulators, rural hospital executives, insurers and health care advocates to explore how the state can keep Medicare patients from bearing high costs while staying within the federally dictated Medicare rules.<\/p>\n Lyons\u2019 amendment takes a step back. The amendment would prohibit the board from addressing the issue through its budget review process for 2027 \u2014\u00a0which it is already preparing guidance for. The amendment instead directs the board to convene a working group and deliver recommendations to lawmakers by Jan. 15, 2027.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s health care advocate, Mike Fisher, encouraged the Legislature to act more quickly on this. \u201cI don\u2019t know whether we can do anything actively in this budget cycle, but I sure don\u2019t want to rope that off. I want to keep pushing,\u201d he testified, regarding the amendment. He added that Vermont\u2019s Medicare patients are being overcharged an estimated $30 million by the federal cost-breakdown.<\/p>\n \u2014 Olivia Gieger\u00a0<\/p>\n On the move<\/p>\n The Senate approved a bill, S.278<\/a>, that would allow people to purchase<\/a> both larger quantities of cannabis and products with higher levels of THC. The bill passed on a voice vote on third reading Friday with two last-minute amendments.\u00a0<\/p>\n One amendment, from Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky, P\/D-Chittenden Central, would allow people to possess and consume cannabis products inside a rented housing unit. A landlord could still prohibit someone from smoking cannabis products but could not bar tenants from, say, taking an edible.\u00a0<\/p>\n The changes under the amended bill would not apply to leases governed by federal law or the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another amendment, from Sen. Thomas Chittenden, D-Chittenden Southeast, would make it less expensive for an outdoor cultivator to buy a growing license from the state. Chittenden said on the floor that outdoor growers should be charged less than indoor growers because they only get one growing season, while indoor growers can cultivate year round.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAn indoor license allows for perpetual harvest, allowing for four to six times the product of a single Vermont summer,\u201d Chittenden said.<\/p>\n \u2014 Charlotte Oliver<\/p>\n The House advanced a bill Friday that would create new regulations on the potential future development and operation of large data centers. Lawmakers are trying to get in front of the possible arrival of these facilities, something that\u2019s looking more and more likely<\/a> amid the rise of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, plus strong backing from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n