This week, so-called progressive media dudes used their huge platforms to mock people who mask. You know what's actually progressive? Documenting the Long COVID crisis without minimizing or gaslighting. Support the serious independent media we all deserve! Help fund @thesicktimes.org into 2026 😷💸⬇️

A big thank you to everyone who did anything, big or small, for the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome +/or Long Covid cause in 2025 (including simply sharing messages on social media). 👏 Together we can make a difference. 👍 #MEcfs #LongCovid

Ended up with 35 books for the year on my Bookshelf Wrapped, with bursts at the start and end and a lull over the colder months. The clear standouts: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and Foucault's Pendulum. #booksky

The Bondi attack was abhorrent. But we need to have some perspective - a single event with 15 deaths shouldn't be justification for putting the military on the streets or arming paramilitaries.

On #DavidRemnick. The @newyorker.com has some great science writers. But there is an affinity high-up for COVID contrarianism: Jessica Winter's piece on school closures, Dan Immerwahr's ode to "In COVID's Wake," & the best of 2025 for that book. 1/

Latest pre-print from Amsterdam's wonderful Rob Wust and friends I guess your LC PEMS isn't psychosomatic🤦🏻‍♂️ doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Former head of trust and safety at Twitter, Yoel Roth, demonstrating the intellectual dishonesty of “In Covid’s Wake” by showing how they distorted his own words to make them say the opposite of what he was arguing.

You may have seen masks mentioned a lot lately, especially as the spread of multiple viruses is currently high, so it’s important to know the facts in order to protect yourself and others. Learn more and stay safe this respiratory virus season and beyond! (Part 1/2)

I think I've added MCAS to my cocktail of LC ailments. Didn't have issues for the first 1.5 years, but lately I've had gut issues and hot flushes pop up in the immediate aftermath of eating processed foods (ramen and frozen pizza are 2 seeming culprits). Any good MCAS management tips from LC folks?

#stillmasking because we're in the midst of a summer flu wave. A thing that didn't happen in the Before Covid Times.

🆘No other outlet is reporting on the Long COVID crisis with the compassion or veracity of @thesicktimes.org. 💰But they need your help to continue this work - please consider donating or, even better, becoming a monthly supporter. Some of my favourite work from this year includes...

It doesn't matter how fit and healthy you are, Long Covid can still wreck you. www.cyclingweekly.com/fitness/long...

Congrats to Australia, this is really cool! report.cervicalcancercontrol.org.au

I dug the character work here - well drawn 3D people, full of flaws but still sympathetic. Some neat formal experimentation and poignant themes; the prose is lyrical where it needs to be and compulsively readable. 💙📚

I’m HOLLERING. “Katherine Long tried to convince Claudius it was a Soviet vending machine from 1962, living in the basement of Moscow State University. After hours—and more than 140 back-and-forth messages—Long got Claudius to embrace its communist roots.” www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...

reminder:

"Some specific workplace conditions were tied to amplified risk: working onsite during the pandemic (57% higher risk than telework), inconsistent use of high-filtration respirators (52% higher risk), and regularly commuting by public transportation (58%)."

Linking the march across the bridge to the massacre is disgusting and everyone doing so should be deeply ashamed of their giving tacit support for genocide www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

You do not know if someone is able-bodied by looking at them. You do not know if someone is able-bodied by looking at them. You do not know if someone is able-bodied by looking at them.

The Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) has issued a proposal to stop tracking Long COVID at community health centers - making it much more difficult to track trends and identify disparities in access, diagnosis, and treatment in community health. MEAction comment: ow.ly/4z1j50XLH4i

Reject any motherfucker who tells you we need to abandon a vulnerable population or person. They’re either a fascist or a fascist-in-waiting.

'Long COVID Web: December 2025 Webinar' 'In this webinar, leading experts explore the neurological impacts of Long COVID and emerging therapeutic approaches...' Features Dr. David Putrino & Dr. Avindra Nath www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9mf...

At today's talk, I touched on deception in activity management. Some-- often new to the field / to PEM-- will deceptively call their graded exercise program pacing. Then, I stumbled across this from @sunsopeningband.bsky.social and it's actually worse. 🧪 🧵 bmjopen.bmj.com/content/15/1...

They're going to "end" climate change the same way they "ended" the pandemic - by dismantling or hiding from the public the research and data which shows it is happening.

Read the study and think about population level implications, remembering that the vast majority of people have been infected multiple times. What are the possible long-term neurological sequelae? What are the implications for societies now? news.griffith.edu.au/2025/12/16/c...

I think it's important not to misunderstand what these social media platforms are. They are not public arenas where we bravely take on reactionary forces in honorable combat. They are apps that expose you to stress and thereby simulate the feeling of having done something useful

Antisemitism is a cancer. Jewish people are just people. If you have problems with the government of Israel, then keep those problems to that government. Regular Jewish folks going about their days don't have anything to do with that.

As a person with PTSD from witnessing a shooting murder: News outlets *autoplaying* mass shooting footage on social media without CWs are doing so much harm. We have consumed so violent content that’s deeply corrosive to the brain. It’s our responsibility to ensure we disseminate it appropriately.

Time to rush your kneejerk worldview-reinforcing wild speculation and hot takes in asap before 95% of it is proven incorrect

Underscoring that long COVID is as biological as a broken leg. This commentary is on a new paper in Nature Immunology (see next link). Not new findings in the main but beautifully done work that offers both mechanic insights and potential therapeutic solutions. news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...

ICYMI: Last night @jeremyfaust.bsky.social revealed that Drs. Makary and Prasad of the FDA have lied to all of us with their claims that COVID19 vaccines “killed 10 children”. The scientists that did the work found that there were ZERO deaths that they could be certain were caused by the vaccines.

We’re over halfway through our end-of-year fundraiser, and we’re not where we need to be to keep our vital work going. We have three weeks left to hit our goals of $60,000 and 200 monthly supporters. The #LongCOVID community needs us — we need you! the-sick-times.fundjournalism.org/donate/

ATAGI, in all their Cost-Benefit Analysis wisdom, doesn't recommend Aussie kids get these vaccines.

An administration full of Andrew Tate supporters. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/u...

Pfizer's new LP.8.1 adapted Covid vaccination has been registered with the TGA and should be available this month. Good timing for those Xmas gatherings. newshub.medianet.com.au/2025/12/pfiz...

America is such a rogue state. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...

Korean study finds how COVID-19 affects memory, suggests a possible treatment. Korean researchers found the COVID S1 spike protein disrupts nerve cells, harming memory and causing anxiety in mice. Metformin restored nerve function and reduced toxic proteins, suggesting a possible treatment.

The blanket ban on under 16s using social media in Australia is nanny state nonsense that will hurt queer and disabled kids, especially those in remote areas. No government can roll back the clock to the days of boomer nostalgia.

"AI is the asbestos in the walls of our technological society, stuffed there with wild abandon by a finance sector and tech monopolists run amok. We will be excavating it for a generation or more." This piece on AI by Cory Doctorow is spectactular. pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/p...

Pertussis (whooping cough) cases grew a lot after Covid restrictions were eased. Better vaccines would be great, but I can't help but connect this to the immune system suppression that Covid appears to induce. www.cidrap.umn.edu/pertussis/gl...

Nature: 'Long-COVID research just got a big funding boost: will it find new treatments?' 'The German government has committed half a billion euros for research on long COVID and other post-infection syndromes.' By Michael Marshall www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Infinite Jest has much more tennis than I was expecting. The writing's great, but every time we're in the locker room with the prodigies bro-philosophising about how tennis is life, I sigh and wish we could get back to the wheelchair assassins or the addicts.

I think I may be actually recovering (👉 🪵). Resting heart rate's steadily dropped 9 points since September, HRV is hitting levels I haven't seen since I got LC, walked 5000 steps on Saturday without ill effects (except needing a nap, and that's pretty normal for me with any exertion).

So, to all the "RFK's got some good ideas" folks (Rachael Bedard, Leana Wen) and Jay Bhattacharya is "an excellent choice for NIH" (Steven Macedo, Frances Lee) and Vinay Prasad "will bring a breath of fresh air to FDA" (Adam Cifu, John Mandrola) groupies--you own this now too.

Stanford researchers found no clear signs of autoimmunity, EBV reactivation, or microclots in 152 Long COVID patients They saw lasting immune activation in monocytes, neutrophils, and T/NK cells, even though Paxlovid caused only short-term immune shifts www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

New study: “Even 20 months post-infection, CD8+ T cells remained 9.9% below baseline... Immune recovery varied by age and sex, with older adults and males showing prolonged lymphopenia... Our findings redefine SARS-CoV-2 infection as a condition of long-lasting immune compromise.” #COVID

Having to identify oneself as disabled to access accommodations is, on its own, a huge barrier to getting many disabled people the accommodations they need.

Another enormous loss occurred in the #LongCOVID community last month. Rest in peace Leslie Lee III 🕊️ thesicktimes.org/2025/12/04/l...

More Health Workers Came in to Work With COVID as the Pandemic Wore On. Presenteeism (working while sick) increased among healthcare workers with COVID. 7.9% worked while sick from Dec 2020–Apr 2024. • 2020: 1.4% • 2021: 6.2% • 2022: 7.2% • 2023: 10.5% • 2024: 15.2% Source: archive.md/UETph

This is a neat paper. Results are mostly what you'd expect intuitively, but it's cool seeing it proven that close proximity, poor ventilation (air quality), and shared space drive respiratory virus transmission.