BROOKLYN, NEW YORK/ Nov. 14, 2024/ THE SICK TIMES
Press requests: Email editors@thesicktimes.org to speak with Betsy Ladyzhets, Heather Hogan, James Salanga, or Miles W. Griffis.
The Sick Times announces its first anniversary; one year of covering the Long COVID crisis.
“Our reporting on Long COVID remains as vital today as it did when we launched,” executive editor Miles W. Griffis said. “Many of our colleagues in the media continue to minimize the disease and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — but not The Sick Times. We report on the most common adverse outcome of COVID-19 affecting millions of Americans and hold those accountable for extending the crisis of mass disability and death.”
The non-profit, queer-led newsroom was founded by science journalists Betsy Ladyzhets and Miles W. Griffis, and started publishing stories on November 14, 2023. As freelance journalists, the pair have separately covered the pandemic since early 2020 for a variety of top publications. Ladyzhets ran the COVID-19 Data Dispatch, a newsletter and blog that provided news, resources, and original reporting on COVID-19 data, while Griffis has reported his own lived experience of being disabled with Long COVID.
Since launching, The Sick Times has gathered over a million impressions across social media, website views, podcast downloads, and a popular weekly newsletter. It provides vital community news about Long COVID, the multi-systemic disease that impacts 400 million people worldwide and can be lifelong and fatal.
Through accountability reporting on billion-dollar research initiatives, nuanced international commentary from people with Long COVID and related diseases like myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), health resources, clinical trial announcements, and weekly COVID-19 data updates, The Sick Times has been a light of service journalism in the dark of our nation’s shameful pandemic denial. Readers and media have called it “the paper of record for the Long COVID community” and “an antidote to the minimization of the Long COVID crisis.”
The publication is free for all readers, free to republish with credit (open source), and is helping redefine the breadth of what independent science journalism can be.
In its first year, The Sick Times collaborated and co-published with award-winning publications STAT News, THEM, Amsterdam News, The 19th, and MuckRock, which serves as its fiscal sponsor. Their work has been republished in POZ magazine, Cancer Health, Sequencer magazine, and local outlets such as Source New Mexico. The publication has been written about and cited in Marketplace, Nieman Reports, and other media industry publications.
“Millions of Americans with Long COVID have been left behind by government agencies and mainstream media outlets alike,” said managing editor and co-founder Betsy Ladyzhets. “I’m proud that The Sick Times has been able to amplify the issues this community faces and bring our readers’ concerns directly to top leaders.”
The Sick Times has published exclusive interviews with leading government officials including National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Monica Bertagnolli and Ian Simon, director of the federal Office of Long COVID Research and Practice, and has provided thorough coverage of NIH’s RECOVER, the U.S.’s much-criticized $1.6 billion research program. Ladyzhets’ prior coverage of RECOVER with STAT and MuckRock was recognized as a finalist for the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation’s 2024 Investigative and General Reporting Award.
The publication has also closely followed private researchers of the disease and other related infection-associated chronic conditions including ME, dysautonomia, and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS). It has provided the most extensive and nuanced coverage of Senate hearings and Long COVID legislation, like Sen. Bernie Sanders’ $10 billion Long COVID Research Moonshot Act.
It is often the first to thoroughly report on stigmatized topics like COVID-19 reinfections, blood donation bans, and related advocacy groups failing to recognize the threat of COVID-19 and Long COVID.
In spring 2024, the newsroom received a $250,000 grant from the biotech giving fund Kanro to continue reporting on the disease, expanding the newsroom and hiring award-winning journalists James Salanga as a podcast producer and Heather Hogan as an engagement editor. The publication also became a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), joining over 400 influential newsrooms including Center for Health Journalism, High Country News, Mother Jones, ProPublica, and Pulitzer Center.
“I’m astounded by our social media growth and engagement over the past year,” said engagement editor Heather Hogan, “I’ve never seen anything like it in 16 years of managing audience engagement. It is proof of the immense need for Long COVID journalism, resources, and information for the millions of children, adults, and families affected by the disease.”
The Sick Times centers the people most affected by Long COVID and related diseases. Its advisory board includes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Ed Yong, veteran ME journalist and author Julie Rehmeyer, leading Long COVID researcher Julia Moore Vogel, and Dr. Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, the chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
The publication features a news site, a free, weekly newsletter, robustly growing social media platforms, and the recently launched podcast, Still Here: A Podcast from The Sick Times.
Still Here provides accessible recaps of recent stories for readers who may not have the energy or ability to read content due to the limitations of Long COVID and related diseases. Episodes are around 20 minutes and cover weekly COVID-19 trends, Long COVID research updates, and the latest discourse on all things Long COVID and COVID-19. It has garnered listeners across 24 countries and has received exclusively 5-star reviews on both Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
“It’s important to us that the Long COVID community has multiple ways to access the breadth of The Sick Times’ coverage and recent research updates,” said podcast producer James Salanga. “I’m really excited that Still Here can be another platform for people with Long COVID to, quite literally, share their voices.”
In one of its first episodes, the podcast celebrated the contributions of disability advocate Tinu Abayomi-Paul who died while living with Long COVID. While the disease is often minimized in the media, the Long COVID can be fatal. According to the Centers of Disease Control (CDC), over 5,000 people have died from the disease, likely a significant undercount.
In addition to covering Long COVID advocacy, The Sick Times has reported on organizing efforts to mitigate the spread of the deadly and disabling virus in the face of widespread government abandonment. It published the first oral history of masc blocs — mutual aid groups and “stop gap” measures that distribute high-quality masks to communities often led by disabled people, many of who have Long COVID. The Sick Times has also reported on the work of clean air clubs, mutual aid groups who are cleaning the air of their communities with air purifiers to prevent COVID-19.
By not closely following or reporting on the science of COVID-19 and Long COVID, much of the media has failed to warn their readers about the serious long-term risks of contracting the coronavirus. The Sick Times fills this ever-growing void by centering chronically ill and disabled people and keeping readers informed with the latest COVID-19 surges.
“Like many early HIV publications that have battled the denial of the HIV crisis, our publication has stepped up to destigmatize a common disease the government and media refuse to take seriously,” Griffis said. “As we enter the second year of our coverage, we will hold the current Biden Administration, the incoming Trump Administration, and many other powerful public health officials accountable for ignoring the ongoing pandemic and those most affected by it.”
Press requests: Email editors@thesicktimes.org to speak with Betsy Ladyzhets, Heather Hogan, James Salanga, or Miles W. Griffis.
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