Sources and updates, March 12
Sources and updates for the week of March 12 include Long COVID deaths, gastrointestinal symptoms, trust in public health agencies, and more.
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Remission Biome could represent a new paradigm in patient-led research
I have a new story out in National Geographic this week about a growing area of research connecting the gut microbiome—the diverse community of microorganisms that live in our digestive systems—with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), the chronic disease that often occurs after viral infection and has many commonalities with Long COVID. For the story, I talked to Tamara Romanuk and Tess Falor, patient-researchers whose Remission Biome project seeks to understand this connection and push towards potential treatments.
Read MoreSources and updates, March 5
Sources and updates for the week of March 5 include a joint COVID/flu rapid test, new Long COVID studies, RSV vaccines, and more.
Read MoreMy tips for covering Long COVID (using data, records, and patient interviews)
On Friday, I led a workshop at NICAR about covering Long COVID. NICAR is a data journalism conference, so my session focused on data sources, along with suggestions for public records requests and for interviewing long-haulers.
Read MoreHow researchers track Long COVID’s impacts
An interesting question from a reader got me thinking about how, exactly, we track the impacts of Long COVID. Doctors, researchers, and long-haulers themselves have learned a lot about the condition over the last three years. We still don’t have clear estimates of exactly how many people in the U.S. are dealing with this chronic disease, but we’ve come much closer to understanding its impacts than we were when patients first began advocating for themselves in 2020.
Read MoreThis winter’s COVID-19 surge wasn’t “mild”
You might have seen some headlines like this in the last few weeks: COVID-19 was “mild” this winter. This winter was “better” than previous winters. COVID-19 is becoming “another seasonal virus” like flu and RSV. But looking at the actual data, we can see this is far from the truth.
Read MoreSources and updates, January 29
Sources and updates for the week of January 29 include wastewater surveillance in New York State, bivalent boosters vs. XBB.1.5, the potential end of the global health emergency, and more.
Read MoreSources and updates, January 15
Sources and updates for the week of January 15 include a Long COVID review paper, COVID-19 on airplanes, nursing home issues, and more.
Read MoreSources and updates, January 8
Sources and updates for the week of January 8 include a new NIH program, China’s unreliable COVID-19 surveillance, airplane wastewater, and more.
Read MoreNew CDC report vastly underestimates deaths with Long COVID
On Wednesday, the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NHCS) released a major report on deaths from Long COVID. To identify a small (but significant) number of deaths, NCHS researchers searched through the text of death certificates for Long COVID-related terms. Their study demonstrates how bad our current health data systems are at capturing the results of chronic disease.
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