“Are you sick?” the Uber driver asked. “Is that why you’re wearing a mask?”

I launched into my usual monologue, delivered to strangers weekly at this point, explaining how COVID-19 transmission is still high and that I don’t want to be reinfected to worsen my existing Long COVID.

He looked at me, puzzled, through the rearview mirror. “I haven’t heard of that before,” he said, “but you look really good!”

I awkwardly stammered that I can no longer exercise, and a few years ago I could barely leave the house, almost dropping out of my graduate school program. I listed statistics of Long COVID prevalence and the compounding risks of infections.

But it was lost on him. “You just need to build your immunity and have a positive mindset,” he said. “I trust you will recover soon!”

It bothers me that people often don’t even blink at what I share, glossing over the serious ramifications of what one SARS-CoV-2 infection did to my life. I hold years of knowledge, research, and pain inside me. But how do I succinctly explain that in a few minutes to someone who has never even heard of Long COVID before?