Opinion piece: Long covid: new wine in need of new bottles, 2021, Bannerjee

Yep, my diagnosing physician said “well, you don’t look depressed” (thanks mate, definitely a save, as no recommendation to GP to refer me to Psych), my DOT worked in the psychosomatic sector, he found me very perplexing…

 

Director of Training

 

The title of Wessely's 1990 article, "Old wine in new bottles, neurasthenia and 'ME' " was meant to suggest that the "old wine" of neurasthenia was being "remarketed" in the "new bottle" of "ME." Basically, it was a sarcastic way of saying "What was old is new again."

It's also an inversion, or "turn," on the New Testament parable of "new wine in old wineskins," which describes a "paradigm shift" in which something new is too different to be compatible with something older. New wine would burst old wineskins.

If one wanted to be sarcastic, one might describe attempts to make biological investigations of Long Covid compatible with older BPS views as being like trying to put "new wine in old wineskins."

If one wanted to be sarcastic...

 

You only missed out the "homophone".

Old whine in new bottles.

 

I think one of SW's skills is that he maybe knows better than MS et. al. when to keep his head down.

 

I suspect that SW is expecting to be made a Lord one of these days. Perhaps he's afraid of rocking the boat - or being seen as a boat-rocker.