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https://thesicktimes.org/2023/11/14/welcome-to-the-sick-times-a-letter-from-our-co-founder-miles-w-griffis/>
"It’s not mysterious. A highly contagious airborne virus has spread around the
world for the past four years and continues to infect people as I write.
SARS-Cov-2 has killed an excess of 23 million people worldwide and plagued over
65 million people with Long Covid and other associated conditions.
Chronic illness advocates warned us about the danger of viruses at the
beginning of the pandemic, stating how past infections led them to develop
myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), dysautonomia, mast cell activation syndrome,
and many other diseases and conditions. The science of viral infections is
extensive and clear: many can cause post-acute sequelae that can spark
immediately, while others take years to decades after the acute infection to
develop. We know Epstein-Barr virus can lead to Multiple sclerosis (MS), human
papillomavirus causes cervical cancer, and of course, that untreated HIV leads
to AIDS. It is no surprise that a virus as deadly as SARS-CoV-2 would lead to
one of the largest mass-disabling events in modern history.
Yet, as we enter the fifth year of the pandemic, our government, public health
agencies, and media continue to downplay or ignore Long Covid, a disease that
recent studies have shown to have a quality of life worse than some end-stage
cancers. We also know it can be fatal. Many people with Long Covid have
described it as a “living death”, a phrase I continue to use after living with
a mild to moderate form of the disease for nearly four years. Still, there are
no cures, established treatments, financial support, or incoming research
funding despite the risk of Long Covid increasing with each COVID-19 infection.
Instead, pwLC deal with skepticism, incredible stigma, and harassment.
While there has been profound reporting on Long Covid in some mainstream
newsrooms, I’ve found that most journalists fail to understand the complexities
of Long Covid. As a journalist, it has been particularly disappointing to watch
many of my colleagues spread mis- and disinformation about Long Covid while
ignoring mountains of research, other infection-associated illnesses, and the
lived experience of patients. Legacy newspapers continually downplay the
disease and its severity, stating it lasts for “months or longer” when we know
it lasts for years (with concurrent diagnoses that we know can be lifelong and
have no cure.) Whether it is their own ableist bias that determines this
coverage or something more nefarious, it’s clear that it is now time for a
newsroom that exclusively covers Long Covid.
My co-founder Betsy Ladyzhets and I are proud to announce
The Sick Times, a
new digital newsroom chronicling the Long Covid crisis."
Via Diane A.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
