Long Covid in the media and social media 2022

Private Eye 28th July

 

STAT Biden's long Covid plan is a good start. But it needs to go further
by Ryan Prior and Kimberley Knackstedt

quotes:

Advocates and patients decry a lack of scientific progress and social recognition for the chronic disease that is upending their lives.

...

Viewing long Covid through a disability lens ensures not only that this condition is taken seriously as a chronic illness, but that rights afforded to people with disabilities are intentionally intertwined through every policy decision. This new generation of chronically ill people fits into a larger big-tent coalition that can fight for them in the broader work for equity for disabled people.

Look to similar post-infectious diseases. Valuable lessons can be learned from post-infectious diseases that long Covid often resembles: myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or mast cell activation syndrome. Although these disorders have been widely documented across many infections, research about them has been poorly funded. The administration’s plan correctly highlights these diseases. Intentionally pulling from clinical experts and the scientific literature could offer an opportunity to solve the mystery of these conditions for millions disabled by Covid and non-Covid infections.

 

Article in The Atlantic from August 4. Two weeks old, but I haven't seen it mentioned here.
Willed Helplessness Is the American Condition: "To wrap your mind around the reality of long COVID and its randomness is terrifying."
Discusses politics somewhat, but also covers research. Mentions ME/CFS:

Cites David Putrino and resaerchers saying that long Covid can be a progressive illness, which is a claim I haven't seen in the news before.

 

Following their weird logic, wouldn’t the fact that they are warning against fear because it makes you ill also be making people ill, because people will start to fear having illnesses caused by fear?

If I were to take them seriously, that just worrying about something will actually make it happen to you body, and could have consequences like being housebound for life, that all your fears will become true simply because you fear them, that’s terrifying. They are actually the ones spreading fear. Fear of simple natural things like thinking and talking.

 

Follow-up on the spate of incorrectly labelled "misinformation" tweets and account suspensions on Twitter.

Perhaps with some success on this occasion, although Dr Jalali also emailed the Twitter CEO.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1561050419576569856

 

Long Covid: Mum puts hopes in experimental treatment

(quite a long article)
full article here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-62608386

 

Wow, I've never heard anyone describe it like that, but it matches my experience markedly. I sometimes describe my experience of physical PEM as feeling "dopey". Very tired, can't concentrate for squat, but it's not always unpleasant. And profound mental fatigue makes me feel loopy, like how I imagine being drunk would feel--though I've never actually been drunk.

 

Eric Topol Long Covid article. So-so.


https://twitter.com/user/status/1561354762854944768

 

CNN interview with Dr Topol:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1561967120358973440


And an evening segment on MSNBC by the host, seen several kudos on this one:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1561914639822520320

 

> Studying Long COVID Might Help Others With Post-Viral Fatigue Ailments


i have come to nearly despise this type of sound bite. can't put finger on it, but i think it's the arrow of help.

never mind the usual omissions about severity and progressiveness and persecution and sociopolitical context, ...

... polished professional casual dismissiveness, subtle insinuations, absolute wrong facts [like i ahve ben sick since '60s-'70s and they outright deny that's poissible what am i chopped liver?] and the impeccable self-description by authorities as heroes ... all dripping noxiously from every orifice in such articles as if addressing m.e. honestly or at all is like a dog trying to avoid being washed.


instead, what has taken me from "these articles are sometimes favorable even if they are watered down to distilled water"...

... to "this gets under my skin and i can't quite put my finger on it", among the NEW omissions and absolutely wrong facts, is...

... the UNIDIRECTIONAL arrow of help. t's not as if pwme can't help just a BIT from a century of persecution, because, you know, they are getting awesome collateral help and they need graded gratitude therapy to realize that.

 

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20220824/long-covid-mimics-other-post-viral-conditions

 

When your only tool is a hammer...

 

It's impossible to satirize this, it's too dumb to dumb down even further.

 

Long covid is a (very small) part of the current election campaign in Sweden. Here are four items published by the public service radio company Sveriges Radio yesterday:

Julia fick postcovid – slussades runt i vården
https://sverigesradio.se/story/julia-slussades-runt-i-varden

 

New York Times
Long Covid Sufferers Have Waited Too Long for Help

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/25/opinion/long-covid-pandemic.html

 

From the article: "Looks like Long COVID victims were intentionally overlooked."

It seems governments go to action, or in this case inaction, on publicizing the existence of Long COVID has helped lead to this chronic, debilitating health condition. Perhaps if information about this phenomenon had been availabe earlier, more people might have taken precautions. An opportunity missed. Along with the decades long neglect of research into post infection chronic diseases, and disability.

 

Just a casual observation. This article has sparked a litany of Long Covid denialists to rehash the most predictable tropes about post viral conditions. The magnitude is absurd and the speed at which the comments surfaced is remarkable. Whenever I feel the paradigm shift, I’m swiftly knocked back down.