NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - 18

Dispatches
NO GAS For responders experiencing long COVID,
simply walking up a flight of steps can present a
challenge that leaves them weak and depleted.
Individuals with COVID long are at
increased risk for several cardiovascular
conditions.
Do we currently have any idea how
prevalent COVID long is among
firefighters?
I'm not aware of any research among
firefighters. I recently did a presentation
for the Fire Department Safety Officers
Association, and I thought that COVID
long was something that was common
among the fire service, but I wanted to
check my assumptions. So I asked the
audience if anyone knew a firefighter
who was struggling with COVID long
or the complications of returning to
work, and I believe every person in that
audience raised their hand. I was afraid
it might be common, and I got some
indication from that audience that it's
more common than I realized-and concerningly
so.
Tell me about C-FACT, the Fire Protection
Research Foundation study you're
working on.
This was a study that I proposed to and
got funded by the Assistance to Firefighters
Grant program. I then reached out to
the Fire Protection Research Foundation
18 | NFPA JOURNAL * SUMMER 2022
because they had partnered with me on
previous projects, and I knew that they
had extensive reach to the fire service. So
the Foundation has convened a technical
panel for me, and they have hosted webinars
for this project. One of the goals
of this project is to get to firefighters
with the information about the impact
of COVID long in the general population,
what we're seeing in occupational
settings, and then asking firefighters to
" I asked the audience if anyone
knew a firefighter who was
struggling with COVID long or
the complications of returning
to work, and I believe every
person raised their hand. "
fill in that picture with their own experiences.
Then we hope to bring all that
information back to the fire service, as
well as to occupational physicians and
primary care physicians, so that people
treating firefighters understand what's
going on.
What's your hope for the future?
One of the things that troubles me
the most is to think of firefighters
or fire departments feeling isolated
in fighting the challenge of COVID
long by themselves. They may have
strange symptoms that haven't been
widely reported. Some firefighters
may have issues with fatigue and not
even realize it could be related to a
COVID infection they had two months
ago. And this is actually common.
People had a mild case of COVID, so
they think they're completely recovered,
and then symptoms appear two
months later. So without increasing
the awareness and getting a wide
range of reports, I'm afraid too many
people are going to be struggling on
their own.
I hope through this project we can
bring together what's known medically,
what's known scientifically,
and what's being experienced in the
fire service, and then make all the
resources readily available through
whatever dissemination routes we can
find so that the firefighters at least are
informed by the best available science
and have some resources and guidelines
to find help.
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NFPA Journal - Summer 2022

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