Long Covid in the media and social media 2023

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Podcast: The Long Covid Podcast
78 - Dr Lucy Gahan - Long Covid, Psychology, Loss & Activism

The guest is an NHS clinical psychologist with LC (who sounds to have improved from severe to mild-moderate over 18 months). Previously worked in palliative care, now part-time in an LC clinic.

Good discussion, eg drawing a sharp distinction between "depression" vs "chronic sorrow"; recognising and validating grief and loss; dismissal and 'unwitnessing' forming layers of trauma on top of the symptoms, representing a further injury.

"I feel like when long Covid happened to me, it opened a door of a world that I didn't know existed. And sometimes I feel I'm in that world, and only people in that world can really understand it."
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"Not long ago I was talking to my partner, and he said 'Do you think that was quite traumatic, that time when we were really ill [with acute Covid] and we thought we might not wake up?' And I was sort of taken aback... and I thought: that didn't last a night or a week, that lasted months... and it hasn't entirely gone away now."
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"And I remember when I first got asked questions by the long Covid service. I kept getting asked if I was depressed or you know the usual questions you get asked. And I would say 'No I'm not depressed, I'm ridiculously grateful to be alive. I'm so far from depressed.'"
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The whole "well-designed" is a classic No true Scotsman fallacy. What does it even mean? There have been many hundreds, in addition to likely above a million clinical applications of the very same model. A process that doesn't record any meaningful data, making any accountability impossible.

Does that mean they were all poorly designed? I sure agree. But what does it say about an entire discipline who produces 100% garbage? It's genuinely hard to find a more blatant "zero professionalism to be found here". Professionals do not produce useless garbage. So they'll somehow be able to do what they never managed to do so far? Which hasn't changed the widespread adoption of this model without any actual evidence.

As if someone is keeping the right design in their back pocket just in case. Too powerful to use, or something. It was just waiting for the right moment to be used by the right person.

I guess it's just gumption, or whatever.
 
With friends like these…

One of the reasons BPS figures can convince others to dismiss us so readily, in my estimation, is through highlighting posts like this. It makes those looking into potential organicity, and by extension us, seem wholly devoid of repute.
 
cassava7 said:
If hearsay is the standard by which Prof Kell rates clinical evidence, I’m afraid that there is reason to be doubtful about his research.
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I did a quick internet search, and did not verify anything, but came up with a list of potential negative side effects from over consumption of celery and some situations where celery overconsumption is potentially counter indicated such as during pregnancy or for people with IBS.

Some of the potential issues related to over consumption of dietary fibre and potential malnutrition because of celery’s low calorie content, both of which might not be such an issue with celery juice, but still throw away remarks that might lead to some people believing celery will cure their Long Covid and behave very stupidly reflects how foolish people making such remarks are. You can not manage the stupidity of people reading your tweets.
 
The invisibility of Long Covid has an even longer history
“We need to take a look back in history to tackle prejudice towards Long Covid today”, argues Long Covid patient Rebecca Siddall

It turns out that for centuries, patients have survived epidemics only to have their lives changed by the seemingly endless nature of their symptoms. In the late 1800s, doctors noted ‘altered cognition’ (what we might now call ‘brain fog’, a common symptom of Long Covid) in survivors of the 1889 and 1892 Russian flu pandemics. Similarly, smallpox and polio are now known to cause long-lasting conditions in the months, years, and decades following initial infection. Recently, the scale of post-polio syndrome has become clear – thirty years after infection, up to 85% of survivors, including those who had a relatively mild original case, may develop muscle weakness and pain. Long Covid is far from the first post-viral condition to emerge en masse in the wake of a pandemic.

The marks of epidemic-triggered post-viral conditions can be seen throughout history; but these patients are often forgotten as soon as the acute phase is over. Even the 1918 ‘Spanish Flu’ pandemic, to which COVID-19 is most often compared in the media, provoked post-viral conditions in survivors. Historian Laura Spinney describes the scale of the issue as significantly impacting economies, just as Long Covid has begun to do today: in Tanzania, ‘Long Flu’ triggered “the worst famine in a century” as fatigue prevented workers from planting the fields. The ‘Spanish Flu’ infected one in three people on Earth, and left up to 100 million dead – and yet was largely written out of collective memory, along with those who suffered from ‘Long Flu’.

Long Covid patients have had to combat a wave of misinformation and prejudice in order to access medical care. This is far from unique: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (also known as ME, another prevalent post-viral condition) was widely dismissed as hypochondria or a psychological problem until the late 1990s. I hope that there is a chance now for history to stop repeating itself: by sharing our symptoms, knowledge and stories, Long Covid patients can challenge the common tendency to dismiss our experiences.

https://www.varsity.co.uk/science/25380
 
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