It Is OK to Have Mixed Feelings About Resuming Activities After Being Vaccinated

For more than a year we heard these messages: Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Stay six feet apart.  Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says people who are fully vaccinated can resume many of the activities they did before the pandemic. The CDC recommends masks indoors in public for everyone in locales where . . .

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How Expedited Drug Approval Impacts the Neuromuscular Disease Treatment Landscape

The urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the drug-development landscape, driving rapid development, US review, and, in one case, new therapeutic approval. To bring critical drugs to market, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is utilizing a special emergency program announced in April 2020 to accelerate approval of promising coronavirus therapies, an initiative . . .

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MDA’s 2021 Advocacy Plan

2021 is a new year: The country has a new administration, and a new Congress has been sworn in. What isn’t new is MDA’s commitment to working tirelessly in Washington, DC, to transform the lives of people living with neuromuscular diseases (NMDs). Here’s a sneak peek at some of the issues we’ll be working on . . .

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MDA Advocacy’s 2020 Year in Review

There’s no doubt 2020 has been a challenging year, but the commitment and passion of our MDA advocates have truly been a bright spot. As we close out the year, let’s recap your amazing accomplishments. Access to care and therapies from day one Thanks to the actions of advocates, together we made sure the lifesaving . . .

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Look & Feel Your Best During Stressful Times: Tips From a Disability Fashion Blogger

Lainie Ishbia, MSW, is a mom, wife, blogger, fashionista, and disability and empowerment speaker. She wears leg braces and struggles with buttons and everyday fine motor tasks because of a slowly progressive neuromuscular disorder called Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT). Lainie is passionate about helping people with disabilities to look and feel their best. She created a lifestyle and . . .

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Reporting Back on MDA’s First-Ever Virtual Hill Day

When the COVID-19 pandemic made meeting in person impossible, MDA’s Advocacy program needed to shift from in-person to virtual meetings with lawmakers. In early August, volunteers met with their lawmakers virtually — for the first time — to urge elected officials in Washington, DC, to end the process of surprise medical billing, which can be . . .

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What the COVID-19 Pandemic Can Teach Us About the Isolation Those Living With Neuromuscular Disease Experience Every Day

In March 2020, MDA asked our advocates how the novel coronavirus pandemic was impacting their lives. New Yorker Robert Paulson shared his story — and the universal truth about how neuromuscular disease (NMD), like COVID-19, creates isolation. But for those living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other forms of NMD, that isolation doesn’t always . . .

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Hacking COVID: MDA Staff Edition

In April, MDA fielded a survey to ask its community how COVID-19 was impacting their lives. We heard your responses — anxiety, questions, hope — and wanted to know more. In this six-part blog series, Hacking COVID, people from MDA’s community, all living with neuromuscular diseases, shared how they’ve altered their day-to-day lives, how they’ve . . .

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Hacking COVID: MDA Ambassador Edition, Part 2

In April, MDA fielded a survey to ask its community how COVID-19 was impacting their lives. We heard your responses — anxiety, questions, hope — and wanted to know more. In this six-part blog series, Hacking COVID, people from MDA’s community, all living with neuromuscular diseases, shared how they’ve altered their day-to-day lives, how they’ve . . .

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Hacking COVID: MDA Ambassador Edition, Part 1

In April, MDA fielded a survey to ask its community how COVID-19 was impacting their lives. We heard your responses — anxiety, questions, hope — and wanted to know more. In this six-part blog series, Hacking COVID, people from MDA’s community, all living with neuromuscular diseases, shared how they’ve altered their day-to-day lives, how they’ve . . .

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