May 1, 2020

In the context of the COVID-19 crisis, one disease has taken center stage as the world found out there is much to learn from lupus – from the people who live with this prototypical autoimmune disease as well healthcare providers dedicated to their care and the researchers committed to finding a cure.  That’s why the Lupus Research Alliance has launched a new campaign, Learn from Lupus, to celebrate Lupus Awareness Month.

To bring those lessons to the fore where lupus and COVID-19 intersect, we are launching a new campaign called Learn From Lupus. Around this theme, the Month will feature many opportunities for education, research updates and heightened lupus awareness including:

• Weekly video series, Mini-Classes with Shayla Shorter, Ph.D., LRA’s Scientific Program Manager. Shayla obtained her doctorate in immunology from Emory University.
• Success Strategies the public can learn that people with lupus use to stay healthy.
• Virtual Brunch with Brenda on World Lupus Day / Mother’s Day, May 10. Brenda Blackmon is a broadcast journalist and dedicated member of the LRA Board.
• Lupus and COVID-19: What You Should Know, Part 2 webcast.

“There is real reason for hope even as we begin a Lupus Awareness Month amid a pandemic, noted Kenneth M. Farber, President and CEO of the Lupus Research Alliance. “As the world struggles to defeat the coronavirus, there is much that can be learned from the lupus community – people already living with a disease that requires extra safeguards against infection. We can also learn a lot from researchers already focusing on why the immune system malfunctions, and rheumatologists who battle the over-zealous immune response that characterizes autoimmune diseases like lupus.”

Read Full Message from Kenneth Farber