A few COVID-19 long-haulers told me they too disbelieved folks with ME/CFS and similar illnesses until they experienced something similar firsthand—and now deeply regret their previous skepticism. (Some folks w/ ME/CFS have said the same.) 1/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/08/long-haulers-covid-19-recognition-support-groups-symptoms/615382/

I asked David Putrino, who runs a Mt Sinai program, why he believes long-haulers when so many physicians do not. This is what he said. 2/

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/08/long-haulers-covid-19-recognition-support-groups-symptoms/615382/

After my 1st long-hauler piece, I got an email asking if I have ME/CFS or similar—fwiw I don’t—on the assumption that ppl who don’t have these illnesses rarely write about them. That felt like a searing indictment. I think about it a lot. 3/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/06/covid-19-coronavirus-longterm-symptoms-months/612679/

Yes it’s harder to imagine something w/o experiencing it 1st-hand, but as my friend @sarahmarieramey (who has ME/CFS) said to me, “isn’t that what empathy is? To be able to feel something you haven’t experienced yourself. The lack of empathy for this kind of problem is hard.” 4/

That lack of empathy hasn't just been tolerated but has also, in some circles, been actively valorised and conflated with critical thinking. I’ve been guilty of that in the past. Covering this story has been a lesson, and one I’m still learning. /Fin