Can't wait for the long covid episode!!

I know there was a whole important episode about democratic reform to enjoy but honestly I was most blown away by the thirty-second discussion of long covid in the beginning!

Jon Stewart has gone to bat for 9/11 survivors who developed disabilities even as people floated the idea of 9/11 syndrome being a hysteria, so I guess long covid and ME are up his alley. As states copying model legislation developed by the Manhattan Institute enact mask bans and people I know on social media are placed under psychiatric holds for asking DOCTORS to wear masks, it seems like the idea of public health is being steam-rolled. Disabled people (including people newly-disabled by a virus they were told is no big deal anymore) are watching each other die on social media and desperately fighting from their sick beds for anyone to care while funding dries up and gets squandered on studies trialing cognitive behavioral therapy. ME patients have been fighting for decades for anyone to believe that common viruses can cause chronic illnesses and been dismissed as hysterics because disproportionately women are affected.

It took ACT UP before people in power recognized the impact HIV was having on the world. Now we understand that HIV causes AIDS, that other viruses cause cancers and we're finding links between a whole lot of mysterious chronic illnesses and common viruses. Mono has links to schizophrenia, asthma has links to the common-cold (rhinovirus), shingles is caused by chicken pox, etc. Imagine we can take one good thing out of the pandemic and help people who have been suffering with ME and being told it's all in their heads because that's easier than admit we don't know the cause of every illness.

I think it was the producer who pointed out in this episode that a lot of people who have long covid probably don't realize it, and this is so important to understand. Labor shortages and absence rates at schools are through the roof and health care is being triaged at every level and people have no idea why. And the conspiracy of silence around covid is the biggest obstacle to connecting all these dots!

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