essay

I want a Long COVID language revolution — not language imposed onto my sick, disabled body

Arts & Culture, Commentary

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By

Lygia Navarro

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May 20, 2025

I wondered: Might there be a way to alter ableist language about disabled Long COVID lives and bodies? Or, at the very least, my own disabled body? So I talked with disabled experts who’ve written about disability and language and surveyed The Sick Times readers about their feelings around the language often used for our…
Avoiding caregiver burnout: Wisdom for the ME and Long COVID community

Commentary

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By

Kim Moy

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May 15, 2025

Many caregivers spend so much time caring for their loved ones that they neglect themselves and burn out. Having experienced burnout myself, I encourage all caregivers to take intentional actions to strengthen their resilience. Over the years, I’ve learned invaluable mindset, emotional, physical, and spiritual strategies to strengthen my resilience so that when challenges arise,…
How volunteering to become a lab rat paid off

Commentary, Science

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By

Felicity Nelson

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May 2, 2025

When I signed up for a clinical trial, I expected it to be thought provoking at best and onerous at worst. I didn’t expect it to change my life.
COVID-19 triggered a life-threatening pulmonary embolism that led to long-term lung damage. It took two ER trips before doctors believed me.

Commentary, Health

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By

Anna Wenner

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April 25, 2025

It started with chest pain. I woke up in the middle of the night and realized I couldn’t take a deep breath. I immediately pulled up the internet to search my symptoms. It turns out, anything with the search terms “chest pain” and “trouble breathing” leads to the same advice: go straight to the emergency room…
Missives from the dismissed: Still COVIDing without community

Commentary, COVID-19

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By

Nadi Zimmerman

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April 18, 2025

Combining my experience building COVID-safe communities online and interviews with over a dozen COVID-cautious people who are “still COVIDing” despite a lack of community, family, and/or peer support, I learned that many are stuck in situations that make living a normal life difficult or impossible because of widespread COVID-19 denial. This essay is a collection…
An international emergency task force is urgently needed for Severe Long COVID and ME crisis cases

Commentary, International, Policy & Advocacy

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By

Sam Pearce

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April 4, 2025

Without one, Severe advocates are putting themselves at risk. It’s time for advocacy organizations to step up. Writer’s note: In this essay, I deliberately capitalize different categories of ME in order to give each the weight and dignity they deserve. I also choose to distinguish between the Sick and the Well to highlight our status…
The history of ME deserves a late-night spotlight. That’s why we started the #JohnVsJonVsME campaign.

Commentary, Policy & Advocacy

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By

sick times

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March 31, 2025

In a crisis-filled world, breaking through the noise requires creativity, strategy — and, occasionally, a really good meme. This is precisely why the #JohnVsJonVsME campaign began.
Long COVID data are being erased, again

Commentary

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By

Betsy Ladyzhets

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March 25, 2025

The lack of comprehensive Long COVID case counts may be considered one of public health’s greatest failures. But as we enter the sixth year of this ongoing pandemic, U.S. institutions are sweeping this mass disabling event under the rug perhaps more than ever before. We can’t let them get away with it.
A serendipitous friendship taught me my greatest lesson in living with Long COVID: How to just be

Commentary

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By

Christina Igaraividez

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March 21, 2025

It’s difficult for me to tell people about Long COVID because it’s impossible for them to understand how someone who looks so “normal” can be so sick. Most of the time, I don’t say anything. But something about Bianca’s warmth made me feel like I could. Little did I know, meeting her would lead me…
The sick soft butch who did: How confronting a racist in my neighborhood helped me claim my Long COVID identity

Commentary

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By

Heather Hogan

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March 18, 2025

The last thing I thought before I smashed, face first, into the New York City sidewalk, was, Dang, my wife’s going to want me to start taking my cane with me everywhere I go. But mostly, I was worried one of my neighbors would watch me tumble over and go limp.