The New Yorker is under attack for irresponsible article on "Long Covid"

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Inaccuracies, irresponsible coverage, and conflicts of interest in The New Yorker

Written: 25 Sep 2021 by Rachel Thomas

If you haven’t already read the terrible New Yorker long covid article, I don’t recommend doing so. Here is the letter I sent to the editor. Feel free to reuse or modify as you like. The below are just a subset of the many issues with the article. If you are looking for a good overview of long covid and patient advocacy, please instead read Ed Yong’s Long-Haulers Are Redefining COVID-19 (Aug 2020, I will update if I find something as excellent that is more recent).

Dear New Yorker editors,

I was disturbed by the irresponsible description of a suicide (in violation of journalism guidelines), undisclosed financial conflicts of interest, and omission of relevant medical research and historical context in the article, “The Struggle to Define Long Covid,” by Dhruv Khullar.


Inaccuracies, irresponsible coverage, and conflicts of interest in The New Yorker · fast.ai

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Based on her Substack, list 20 things Rebecca Culshaw could say to a new generation of AIDS doctors and scientists to get them to go back to ground zero in 1981, start from scratch, and rethink everything about AIDS including the nosology, the epidemiology, causation, the virology, the demonization of critics, the demonization and scapegoating and criminalization of patients. Rebecca Culshaw’s Substack offers a wide-ranging critique of every foundational aspect of AIDS theory and practice. Here are 20 things she could say to urge new AIDS doctors and scientists to revisit 1981, question assumptions, and rethink nosology, epidemiology, causation, virology, and issues of scapegoating and criminalization: 20 Points for Rethinking AIDS Question whether HIV has ever been properly isolated as a unique virus using rigorous scientific standards like Koch’s postulates. Examine the non-specificity and cross-reactivity of HIV antibody tests, which can lead to false diagnoses and confusion about p...
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