ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Photographer Omar Melendez struggled to get back to work after contracting COVID-19 earlier this year and didn’t know when he'd be able to do another photo shoot. 

“It literally stopped me from doing most anything,” Melendez said. “Just getting up from the hospital bed to the sink, it took maybe a half-hour, 40 minutes, just because I couldn’t breathe.” 

After getting the disease in July, he spent months recovering. His symptoms forced him to turn down important gigs. 

“I felt real bad when a friend of mine reached out to me and she was getting married, and she wanted me to photograph her wedding, and I promised her a long time ago and I was like, ‘Yes, I will definitely do it,'” he said. 

More than one in four people who contract COVID-19 develop long-haul symptoms, according to multiple studies by researchers at major American universities, and many people find themselves wondering if they will have to go on disability.

Even though long-haul COVID was classified as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act in July, getting benefits still can be extremely difficult, according to UCF public health researcher Dr. Makella Coudray,

“In terms of COVID-19, it’s an infection,” said Coudray, who studies COVID-19 long-haulers and their needed care. “It’s very difficult, for example, for a nurse to prove that she was infected at the hospital she worked at, versus did she get infected when she went to the grocery?”

Even though symptoms of long-haul COVID-19 can be debilitating, the disability system wasn’t really set up for these types of conditions, Coudray said. 

Only about four of every 10 people who apply for Social Security assistance get it, she said, and that’s for people with well-established disabilities. 

“For example, chronic fatigue syndrome, which is one of the most common symptoms for long-haulers, there’s no test to measure chronic fatigue,” she said. 

Melendez is one of the lucky ones. He may not be back to 100% yet, but he’s feeling well enough to do photo shoots again. He can earn income doing what he loves again. 

“It was a long road, but now I can stay standing a lot longer, and I can walk better,” he said.