If you haven’t already read the terrible New Yorker long covid article, I don’t recommend doing so. Here is the letter I sent to the editor. Feel

Inaccuracies, irresponsible coverage, and conflicts of interest in The New Yorker · fast.ai

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2021-09-26 13:30:04

If you haven’t already read the terrible New Yorker long covid article, I don’t recommend doing so. Here is the letter I sent to the editor. Feel free to reuse or modify as you like. The below are just a subset of the many issues with the article. If you are looking for a good overview of long covid and patient advocacy, please instead read Ed Yong’s Long-Haulers Are Fighting for their Future.

I was disturbed by the irresponsible description of a suicide (in violation of journalism guidelines), undisclosed financial conflicts of interest, and omission of relevant medical research and historical context in the article, “The Struggle to Define Long Covid,” by Dhruv Khullar.

The article contained a description of a patient’s suicide with sensationalistic details, including about the method used. This is a violation of widely accepted journalism standards on how to cover suicide. Over 100 studies worldwide have found that risk of suicide contagion is real and responsible reporting can help mitigate this. Please consider these resources developed in collaboration with a host of organizations, including the CDC: Recommendations – Reporting on Suicide

Both Khullar and one of his sources, Vinay Prasad, have venture capital funding from Arnold Venture for projects that help hospitals reduce costs by cutting care. Thus, they stand to gain financially by minimizing the reality of long covid. At a minimum, your article should be updated to note these conflicts of interest.