Op-eds, sometimes known as opinion or commentary, have been powerful in raising awareness and providing solutions for Long COVID, from early reports of the disease to calls to action that have inspired legislation.
As a small nonprofit news site covering a disease that affects tens of millions of Americans, we receive many more pitches for commentary pieces than we can publish. Often, we encourage writers to pitch local and other national outlets to share their stories, arguments, and perspectives on Long COVID with larger audiences.
But the process of pitching and writing an op-ed isn’t always accessible. To help demystify the process, The Sick Times hosted a free webinar on February 19, 2026. Alongside expert guest speakers, we offered tips to the community on the process of pitching and writing these persuasive articles.
We organized this event just before the start of Long COVID Awareness Month, as pitching during awareness months may provide a timely “hook” that some editors look for.
My colleague Betsy Ladyzhets and I hosted the event and were joined by Torie Bosch, First Opinion editor at STAT; Funmi Okunola, physician and co-founder of Long COVID The Answers; and Madeline Miller, bestselling novelist known for her influential op-ed, “Long COVID has derailed my life. Make no mistake: It could yours, too,” published in The Washington Post.
We began the event by giving a brief history of the op-ed, a highly structured article around 700–1,200 words that builds an argument or opinion around a specific thesis statement. These articles typically start with an attention-grabbing introduction, then include three or four sections with evidence supporting the writer’s argument. That evidence may come from the writer’s personal experience, scientific research, or other areas. Op-eds also usually include a “call to action,” inviting the reader to act on the issue.
Later, I spoke more specifically on the history of the “Long COVID op-ed,” beginning with a New York Times op-ed that documented some of the first cases of Long COVID before the disease was even named by patients, serving as a warning of the mass of disability ahead. I also analyzed other op-eds, including Ed Yong’s about how reporting on Long COVID made him a better journalist, and more specific “solution”-oriented op-eds, like researchers Lisa McCorkell and Michael Peluso’s “moonshot” commentary in Nature, which helped inspire Sen. Bernie Sanders’s Long COVID Research Moonshot Act.
Betsy then spoke about the process of pitching an op-ed for The Sick Times. As every publication is unique, whether local, national, or international, it is important to identify how they handle op-eds from new writers by checking on the publication’s writing guidelines before submitting, or, if it isn’t clear, by emailing a publication’s opinion or commentary editor for clarification. For example, The Sick Times accepts pitches only (not full-draft submissions), while other publications, like STAT, prefer full drafts.
Our experts then gave us their top tips on pitching and writing op-eds.
Torie Bosch, the First Opinion editor at STAT, gave these tips:
- Great op-eds are often structured around a new idea that “animates the audience.” She stated she looks for articles that make her think, “I haven’t thought of it that way before.”
- STAT’s audience includes people who “care deeply about health and medicine.” For a local publication, the audience might include people who live in a particular city or region.
- For Bosch, op-eds often respond to recent news or events. Emphasizing a timely connection is helpful in a pitch or submission. STAT also publishes op-eds relatively soon after submission (often in the same week); every publication has a different schedule and process for editing.
- Bosch noted that she turns down many great pieces due to limited capacity and seeking to publish on a wide range of topics. “If I turn down a submission, please do submit again,” she said.
- STAT First Opinion’s submission guidelines are available here.
Madeline Miller described the process behind her influential Washington Post op-ed and offered suggestions for other writers with Long COVID:
- “Give yourself way more time” than you think you need to write a draft, she said. Her process for that op-ed included different rounds of writing, feeling strong emotions such as anger or grief, resting, and then returning to the piece.
- Make a list of points that are nonnegotiable, or that you want to ensure remain included in the final piece. For Miller, mentioning myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) was nonnegotiable.
- While editors might ask for more detail or examples from your experiences, remember that “you don’t have to disclose anything you don’t want to disclose.”
- Consider asking a friend or loved one to read a draft and share feedback before you submit it. Friends can also help read and filter a resulting comment section, so that you don’t see comments from trolls. “I don’t think you can write to armor yourself against trolls,” Miller said. “And I don’t think you should, because the trolls are going to find their way in.”
Finally, Funmi Okunola talked about her experience writing an op-ed for The Sick Times and gave advice on how to communicate about Long COVID and related diseases:
- She shared that when working with editors, you may go through multiple rounds of feedback. It is important to give yourself time for not only writing your first draft, but for addressing and working with editors to strengthen the article.
- “The biggest thing I learned,” Okunola said, “was that I needed to be open to learn and to hear and accept criticism or probing, but also I needed time so that I didn’t get overly stressed about having to do it.”
- Okunola also emphasized the importance of trying to understand why people minimize Long COVID so you can build rock-solid arguments and better educate people who may not be as aware of the disease.
- Lastly, she encouraged attendees to speak up about Long COVID and COVID-19, and ask for prevention measures like masks and clean air. “We need to help [people] recognize that they probably have someone in their friend group or in their family or a loved one that is suffering from Long COVID,” she said, “but also that they themselves are being affected by repeated infections of a virus that is entering every organ of their body.”
We need to help [people] recognize that they probably have someone in their friend group or in their family or a loved one that is suffering from Long COVID, but also that they themselves are being affected by repeated infections of a virus that is entering every organ of their body.
Funmi Okunola
Resources and quick tips:
To pitch an op-ed, we recommend keeping pitches short — around 250 words. Begin the subject line with “Pitch,” followed by a “headline” that summarizes your main thesis in a very short sentence. For example, “Pitch: Our city should appropriate leftover COVID-19 money to support people with Long COVID,” or “Pitch: Why we need to prioritize [xyz] treatment for Long COVID research.”
Then, in the body of the email, introduce yourself and identify the main thesis of the article you want to write. Follow up that thesis with your main “supports,” or evidence, that you’ll use to construct an argument around your thesis. These could include studies, other articles, statistics, personal experiences, observations, and more. Finally, end with a call to action that relates to your thesis. This could be something as specific as “support [xyz] Long COVID bill” or “sign this [xyz] petition” to something more broad, like “Tread with care, we can all be affected by Long COVID.”
Resources:
- The Op-ed Project has an extensive list of resources, as well as tips and tricks for writing opinion pieces for newer writers.
- The Open Notebook’s pitch database includes successful pitches for opinion and op-ed at a variety of publications.
- The Institute for Independent Journalists has also hosted a webinar about pitching op-eds.
- Voices in Print is a project from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health that helps patient-advocates craft editorials for medical journals (which are similar to op-eds, but for a more academic audience).
- Another powerful tool similar to op-eds are “letters to the editor,” which are shorter and respond to specific coverage. Here are some Long COVID examples of letters to the editor we published at The Sick Times, as well as some from The Boston Globe. This resource from the University of Kansas’s Community Toolbox is one of many helpful guides on this format.
All articles by The Sick Times are available for other outlets to republish free of charge. We request that you credit us and link back to our website.
