Rolling Stone Magazine: Long Covid Is Real — and It’s Changing an Entire Generation

[Chandelier]

Rolling Stone magazine features a 5,000-word article about Long Covid:

Long Covid Is Real -- And It's Changing an Entire Generation

Long Covid is affecting hundreds of thousands of kids in America, and many doctors and schools refuse to recognize their illness.

www.rollingstone.com

Short AI Summary:

Long Covid Is Reshaping an Entire Generation​

The Rolling Stone article by Eli Cahan explores how long Covid has silently reshaped the lives of countless American children, exposing both a medical and educational crisis. Through families like Lia Corbitt’s and Dakota Presnell’s, it portrays how a once-temporary virus evolved into a chronic condition that many doctors and schools still refuse to acknowledge.

Invisible Illness and Lost Childhoods​

Lia and Dakota represent hundreds of thousands of children enduring relentless fatigue, brain fog, nausea, and pain. Their illnesses gradually erased their academic performance and social connections. Too often, their symptoms are dismissed by adults as psychological or teenage behavior, making diagnosis and school accommodations almost impossible.

Policy Failures and Political Regression​

Under President Trump’s second administration, funding for long Covid research was slashed, and offices supporting affected families were dismantled. Removed protections, reduced Medicaid coverage, and cuts to the Department of Education endangered special education services. Experts warn that these shifts will worsen absenteeism, inequality, and educational decline across the country.

The Battle for Recognition and Support​

Schools often resist or misapply support plans meant to assist students with long Covid, leaving parents to fight exhausting bureaucratic and legal battles. Families face threats of truancy, stigmatization, and exclusion from mainstream classrooms. Many children have been forced into hybrid or virtual schooling, deepening feelings of isolation.

A Generation Left Behind​

Despite efforts by advocates and physicians, structural denial persists. The result is a public health disaster transforming childhood itself—one where illness remains invisible, compassion scarce, and hope fragile. Yet, through treatment and determination, some young patients like Lia continue striving to reclaim their futures.

 

[Hutan]

Thanks @Chandelier. That article will be pretty influential, won't it?

About the author Eli Cahan:

Eli Cahan is an investigative journalist and a pediatrician at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Gosh, he's had articles in a lot of prestigious media. I wonder if we have seen his research papers.


From Linked In

Pediatrician.
Award-winning investigative journalist as seen in ProPublica, The Washington Post, LA Times, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, VICE, and elsewhere.
Award-winning researcher as seen in NEJM, JAMA, Health Affairs, BMJ, and elsewhere.
Clips:
General Publications: https://muckrack.com/eli-cahan
Scientific Publications: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Cahan+EM[Author]

 

[Sean]

“It is time to stop using terms like ‘Long Covid,’” John Gerrard, former chief health officer of Queensland, Australia, wrote in a press release for a March 2024 study comparing symptoms of Covid patients to those with the flu. “This terminology can cause unnecessary fear, and in some cases, hypervigilance to longer symptoms that can impede recovery.”

John Gerrard, for those unacquainted with his views. (1, 2, 3).

 

[Chandelier]

John Gerrard, for those unacquainted with his views. (1, 2, 3).

That third article is intense:

John Gerrard will step down as Queensland's Chief Health Officer next month, describing threats of violence as a low point of his three years in the role.

He said threats of physical violence over his decisions about COVID-19 were "probably the lowest point in my time in this job".

"Someone threatened to break my legs and then break them again. That was terrible,"

Dr Gerrard said.
"People had such strong views with COVID. There were extreme views on both sides – from those people who thought we were doing too much, we were exaggerating, and those people who thought we weren't doing enough.

"It wasn't just a matter of steering a path in one direction or the other, there were extreme views across the range."

 

[rvallee]

It's become mostly a minority problem, most articles at least mention it, but it's something to write a long form article this late into this problem and make zero mention of ME/CFS and the long history of denial and discrimination. Probably something to do with the author being a physician.

There is some mention of Long Covid being a "newer" diagnosis, and that excuse has expired so long ago it's now a 15th generation fungus colony. It was a pathetic excuse to begin with, but now it's frankly unforgivable.

 

[Hutan]

but now it's frankly unforgivable.

I don't know. We all have gaps in our knowledge. The gaps tend to be influenced by the company we keep. As you say, the fact that the author is a doctor probably has something to do with that.

I'm happy to forgive him that lapse if he learns and uses his platform to get things right. It would be great if he came here.

I think the article had an interesting focus - the impact on children and specifically how schools are supporting (or not supporting) students with Long Covid.

The lack of mention of ME/CFS was part of a wider problem of not recognising that the very broad definition of Long Covid encompasses multiple health conditions.

A major problem for me was the assumption throughout that the Long Covid clinics can help, the only problem is that access to them is poor. The recovery of one of the students is attributed to a clinic rather than time:

After she got into a pediatric long Covid clinic and began implementing a variety of different treatments — salt tabs day and night, electrolyte powder infused in every drink, this and that medication prescribed off-label — slowly but surely, she has been feeling better. So, she’s got her eyes on the prize. A high school diploma. A college welcome weekend. Most recently, a beauty pageant title.

 

[hotblack]

A major problem for me was the assumption throughout that the Long Covid clinics can help, the only problem is that access to them is poor. The recovery of one of the students is attributed to a clinic rather than time:

I guess that’s a pattern we commonly see with many issues which face disbelief. First people have to admit there’s a problem. Then they have to admit they don’t understand the problem. Only then can people start to understand it.