By Melissa Wright

COVID-19 has created massive disruptions to daily life over the last few months. Some people have lost loved ones. Others have been sickened by the coronavirus or have family members who have it.

Yet, even those who have escaped direct physical harm from the virus have experienced major changes. Many of us have had to modify the way we live, work, shop, and educate our children—including wearing face masks in public!

We at MyLymeData want to know specifically how the pandemic is affecting the Lyme community. Therefore, we are launching a new survey this week.

In it, we ask questions about receiving medical care for your existing Lyme-related condition during this chaotic time, your level of comfort or concern with carrying on with your normal day-to-day activities amid the COVID-19 crisis, or if you have felt any impact at all. Some clinicians have speculated that patients with Lyme disease who are taking antibiotics may get COVID-19 less often.  So, we ask about that, too.

How do you take the survey?

If you are already enrolled in MyLymeData, all you have to do is log in and click on the survey from your participant dashboard. If you have not yet joined MyLymeData, now is the perfect time to sign up.

More than 12,000 people have enrolled in MyLymeData since LymeDisease.org launched it five years ago. It allows patients to privately pool information about their Lyme disease experiences and is now the largest observational study of Lyme patients ever conducted.

Click here to register and complete the entry survey(s). Then the new COVID-19 survey will be available on your participant dashboard. It is that easy.  However,  if you have questions or experience trouble please email us at mylymedata@lymedisease.org.

We look forward to learning and sharing how COVID-19 has affected the Lyme community.

Melissa Wright, LymeDisease.org’s Director of Patient Engagement and Outreach, is a member of the MyLymeData team.