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9 Sep, 8 tweets, 4 min read
🚨I wrote a new piece about the 9 errors of intuition that people keep making during the pandemic, trapping us in a spiral of bad decisions & policies. This is a guide to thinking about the crisis & breaking free from that endless loop. 1/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Beating COVID-19 isn't just about more tests/masks. Many of the problems that have tripped us up are conceptual. Magical thinking. False dichotomies. Conflating imperfect with useless. Blaming individuals over fixing systems. I've listed 9. 2/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
These errors of intuition cropped up in debates over masks, social-distancing, ventilation, colleges. They’ll appear again when we have a vaccine. Winter is coming. We must reset, and "adjust our thinking to match the problem before us.” 3/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
These errors aren’t unique to COVID-19. But as I explain in the final section, they’ve been exacerbated by features of this particular pandemic, and by the people who are meant to lead the US out of it--but have instead made things much worse. 4/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
The perfect metaphor for the US pandemic response: the army ant “death spiral.” Following looping pheromone trails, the ants walk in endless self-destructive circles, walled in by their own unhelpful instincts. We should/can do better. 5/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
This piece is a sequel of sorts to this earlier one from April (which is still pretty solid 5 months later) about why the pandemic is so confusing. 6/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Throughout the year, I’ve tried to write pieces that help us make sense of this generation-defining crisis, deal with the constant gaslighting, see the bigger picture, and find structure amid uncertainty and complexity. I hope this new one helps. Fin/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
PS. Some of you have kindly said that you're looking forward to a time when I can return to nature writing, and, well, the army ants bit comes from the book about animal senses that I still need to finish. I guess you got your wish?

theatlantic.com/health/archive…

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More from @edyong209

Ed Yong Profile picture
24 Aug
In this immunology explainer, I noted that some anecdotal accounts of COVID-19 reinfections exist, but to confirm them, you'd need to sequence the genes of the virus from both infections and show they were subtly different.

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
A HK team has apparently done that. If true, this would be the first *confirmed* case of reinfection. (Note: there's a press release, and someone has posted screengrabs of parts of the paper, but the whole thing isn't online 😡)

BUT...

As I wrote, it's not surprising/worrying if reinfections *can happen*. More important Qs are:

- How common are they? (Not addressed in this study)
- Is the 2nd time more/less severe than the 1st? (2nd infection was asymptomatic here, but that's 1 case.)

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 5 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
20 Aug
A few COVID-19 long-haulers told me they too disbelieved folks with ME/CFS and similar illnesses until they experienced something similar firsthand—and now deeply regret their previous skepticism. (Some folks w/ ME/CFS have said the same.) 1/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
I asked David Putrino, who runs a Mt Sinai program, why he believes long-haulers when so many physicians do not. This is what he said. 2/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
After my 1st long-hauler piece, I got an email asking if I have ME/CFS or similar—fwiw I don’t—on the assumption that ppl who don’t have these illnesses rarely write about them. That felt like a searing indictment. I think about it a lot. 3/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 5 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
19 Aug
🚨Here’s my new story about long-haulers who’ve had COVID-19 for months. I first wrote about them in early June, and much has changed since then. Notably, many are still sick. For some, it’s been 5+ months of debilitating symptoms. #LongCovid 1/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Some changes are positive. There’s more awareness of long-haulers & more acceptance from docs. These changes were mostly driven *by long-haulers* who fought for recognition, led their own research, & supported each other, all while being very sick. 2/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
But early pandemic mistakes are STILL costing long-haulers dearly. Testing screw-ups in Feb/Mar meant many never got tested; in Aug, that means many are still being gaslit, & can’t get into post-covid clinics. (What about antibody tests? Read the piece) 3/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 11 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
7 Aug
I’m really grateful to everyone who read the big new cover story this week. If you’ve liked my work, perhaps you’ll also like the work that I like. Here are some great pandemic-related pieces from the last month, from writers whose work I respect.
Here’s a critical vaccine reality check from @sarahzhang, who is surely one of the most formidable science writers working today. Every piece is beautifully explained and meticulously researched. This one is really important. theatlantic.com/health/archive…
A stunning investigative work by @katherineeban into Jared Kushner’s shadow taskforce and its secret, shelved testing plan. It’s perhaps the closest we have to an actual disproval of Hanlon’s razor. vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/h…
Read 17 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
6 Aug
The central idea behind this piece on why the US failed so badly to control the pandemic is that it fell under the combined weight of a multitude of weaknesses, every one of which was predictable.

I want to unpack that idea.

A thread. 1/

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
This paragraph at the top hints at some of those weaknesses--all discussed, all left to fester. 2/

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
But I think that while everyone saw the cracks in their particular area, few people saw all the pieces--or weighted them correctly. Which is why we had pre-pandemic indices that assessed the US as the most prepared of all nations. 3/

(From March: theatlantic.com/health/archive…)
Read 14 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
5 Aug
The origin of this story is one of my colleagues asked for an immunity explainer, and I said, "GOD NO, have you any idea how complicated immunology is, that would kill me," but then I realized that I am already dead inside, and wrote the piece.

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Me, after reporting this piece:
Correction: This piece states that "Immunology confuses even biology professors who aren’t immunologists," but it also confuses biology professors who are immunologists. The Atlantic regrets the error.

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 4 tweets

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