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Mallory Stanislawczyk was hesitant to make the call. She hadn’t spoken to her friend for years. But the friend, who gets around in a wheelchair, was the only person the 34-year-old nurse practitioner could think of who would understand her questions. About being ready to accept help. About using a wheelchair. And about the new identity her battle with long COVID had thrust on her.

“I think she is the first person I said to, ‘I’m disabled now,'” Stanislawczyk recalled telling the friend. “‘And I’m working on accepting that.'”

The coronavirus pandemic has created a mass-disabling event that experts liken to HIV, polio or World War II, with millions suffering the long-term effects of infection with the coronavirus. Many have found their lives dramatically changed and are grappling with what it means to be disabled.

“It’s an entirely new identity,” Stanislawczyk said.