The Sick Times: A journalist-founded website chronicling the Long Covid crisis

SNT Gatchaman

SNT Gatchaman

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Staff member
https://thesicktimes.org/

We report on the common, life-changing disease following Covid-19 infection that affects over 65 million people worldwide and can be fatal. Our coverage spans related infection-associated chronic conditions such as myalgic encephalomyelitis, dysautonomia, mast cell activation syndrome, and more. Unlike many outlets, we continue to report on the impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. No denial, minimizing, or gaslighting here.

Join us as we investigate injustices, challenge powerful institutions, wield through the latest research, assess Covid-19 data, and offer a platform for those most affected by the crisis.

Betsy Ladyzhets and Miles Griffis
 
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Since our initial call, Betsy and I have spent the past few months speaking with advisors including pwLC, pwME, physicians, researchers, and public health experts, as well as journalists like Ed Yong, Julie Rehmeyer, David Tuller, and Sean Strubb, the founder of POZ magazine. The Sick Times will be a high-impact publication that covers the latest research, holds powerful actors accountable, performs deep-dive investigations, and offers a platform for pwLC, researchers, caretakers, physicians, and others to share their ideas and opinions on the Long Covid crisis.
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Thanks SNT, it looks useful. There's a reader's survey asking for ideas for stories and resources.

I mentioned the Cochrane issue (and the petition), as well as the trend for ME/CFS to be disappeared, replaced with diagnoses of Long Covid and psychosomatic Functional Disorders. And this forum.
 
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David M Tuller The Launch of The Sick Times, a new online publication

Presentation:
In mid-November, Betsy Ladyzhets and Miles Griffis, two smart, young journalists, announced the launch of The Sick Times (https://thesicktimes.org/), an online publication focused on long Covid and related syndromes, including ME/CFS. I have met both of them in the last couple of years and have been impressed with work covering the pandemic, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how The Sick Times evolves. (I interviewed Ladyzhets earlier this year about her investigation of the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s RECOVER program for long Covid, which was published by STAT.) I talked with Ladyzhets and Griffis the other day about why they started The Sick Times, their plans for the publication, and related issues.


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The Sick times is hiring two part time writers, and accepting pitches for Commentary/analysis pieces on Long Covid. 400-1200$ is paid per piece.

I personally don’t have enough energy to contribute, but for some people here (a lot of you are really smart and have some interesting ideas to share), this could be a great opportunity.

See: https://thesicktimes.org/write-for-us-part-time-opportunities/
 
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Now with a podcast as well called "Still here":

In the pilot episode of Still Here: A Podcast From The Sick Times, co-hosts Miles Griffis and Betsy Ladyzhets talk with podcast producer James Salanga about the latest COVID-19 numbers. Engagement editor Heather Hogan joins James, Miles, and Betsy to recap the NIH RECOVER-TLC meeting from last week. And in research, a hopeful update about a nasal spray effective at blocking respiratory viruses — including COVID-19.

https://thesicktimes.org/2024/10/04/still-here-10-4-2024-links-and-transcript/
 
The latest podcast episode celebrates their one year anniversary:

The Sick Times - Still Here, November 15: Links and transcript

https://thesicktimes.org/2024/11/15/still-here-november-15-links-and-transcript/
The Sick Times said:
Summary

This week, we celebrate one year of The Sick Times! The Sick Times team discusses the newsroom’s origin story, what the publication means to them, and what the next year (and hopefully years, plural) holds.

Also in this episode: the latest COVID-19 numbers, and recapping the team’s coverage of the Fall 2024 PolyBio Symposium on Long COVID Research.
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From the Putrino thread:
Great piece from @thesicktimes about our participation in some #LongCOVID and infection-associated chronic condition and illness education in Santa Barbara. Great coverage of some of the challenges of CME-accredited education as well as the need for thesicktimes.org/2026/03/30/cal…
1/“

Haven’t read….
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thesicktimes.org

California clinicians gather for Long COVID forum. Recent guides offer direction. - The Sick Times

Clinicians and people with Long COVID gathered in Santa Barbara, California, in late March for a forum on advancing clinical care in infection-associated chronic conditions.
thesicktimes.org thesicktimes.org

Lots of information in that piece from The Sick Times.

I imagine it is very hard for journalists like those at The Sick Times to be critical of celebrity LC doctors. Keeping them on side helps ensure ongoing access to information, and a lot of potential subscribers will be strong supporters of those doctors. That's a genuine observation, not a criticism. It's very hard to criticise the doctors who are widely regarded as helping (and who genuinely believe that they are). I'm well aware of how it's possible to be isolated from many in the ME/CFS community if you choose to criticise the doctors pushing unevidenced treatments.

From the article:
Putrino - treat the drivers of infection associated chronic conditions, not the symptoms:
During his talk, Putrino went over ten possible “drivers” of IACCs, including pathogen persistence, pathogen reactivation, mitochondrial dysfunction, vascular dysfunction, dysautonomia, mast cell activation, and more. Rather than treating symptoms of IACCs — which, in the case of Long COVID, include more than 200 — he urged providers to treat “drivers” of symptoms.

Putrino told clinicians to treat each case of Long COVID individually, since the disease is so complex. “When you’ve seen one Long COVID patient, you’ve seen one Long COVID patient,” he said. “We need providers to understand that this is not a silver bullet issue.”
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Apparently 'learning to do no harm includes being on the edge of medicine':
Viswanathan said that in her experience, she has found the heart failure drug ivabradine to be helpful for some people with Long COVID. She has had success with insurance covering it when patients are diagnosed with inappropriate sinus tachycardia (IST), a type of dysautonomia.

While there are no currently FDA-approved treatments for Long COVID, Viswanathan urged providers to consider prescribing medications off-label, as some may help improve quality of life. “Learning to do no harm also needs to include being on the edge of medicine,” she said.
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We have a proliferation of treatment guides right now.
On top of the CoRE and Bateman Horne Center guides, the Patient-Led Research Collaborative and the telehealth clinic RTHM recently published a Long COVID Treatment Guide with potential off-label drugs, supplements, and lifestyle interventions for people with the disease to discuss with providers who may not be informed on Long COVID.
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A Google executive has a son with LC and 'ME':
Three patients and one caregiver, Royal Hansen, the vice president of privacy, safety, and security engineering at Google, joined the panel. He spoke about his 10-year-old son’s experience with severe Long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). The illnesses have left Hansen’s son bed- and homebound, and unable to attend school. Before, he was active and enjoyed playing many sports.

“Little by little, everyone forgot about him,” Hansen said, joining virtually from Utah. “It’s a little bit surreal,” he said about the isolation his family experiences because of his son’s illness. Hansen described significant trouble for his family in finding care for their son. While they moved from California to Utah to access better care, he said his son is “basically in the same place” and that some treatments they have tried have made him worse.
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A forthcoming pediatric LDN trial:
Guidance for Long COVID in children has moved at a glacial pace, and there have been only a handful of pediatric clinical trials. RECOVER has plans for a trial on low-dose naltrexone (LDN) in children that will begin recruiting later this year, and only a few other trials are scattered around North America.
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Is it RECOVER that has been running an adult LDN trial? Would they have any results at this point?
 
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