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Ed Yong is not here Profile picture
@edyong209
Nov 13, 2020 • 12 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
🚨I wrote about what health-care workers are going through, how exhausted & scared they are, and what this 3rd pandemic surge is doing to them.

It’s not like the first 2. It’s worse. How much slack is left in the system? Iowa nurse: “There is none” 1/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
You’ve seen the huge numbers. Here’s what they can mean.

➡️36-hour shifts
➡️Docs on standby in case a colleague and their substitute AND their substitute’s substitute get sick
➡️“We’re all running on fear”
➡️“There’s only so many bags you can zip” 2/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
The issue isn’t beds or ventilators. It’s people.

In many states, there already aren’t enough nurses/docs to care for the incoming COVID-19 patients.

Here’s what it takes to care for one in an ICU. (Non-COVID patients are coming in sicker too.) 3/

theatlantic.com/health/archive… Image
Good news: death rates are lower now than March.

But that’s partly because health-care workers are savvier & better at treating COVID-19.

Those gains are not givens. They’re *contingent on people not burning out*. And people are. 4/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Surges 1 & 2 were concentrated in specific areas, so hard-hit hospitals could call for help.

The big difference this time: The 3rd surge is everywhere. Reinforcements are scarce. 5/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Last weekend, when everyone else was reacting to election results, many of the folks I talked to for this story were working ER shifts.

Many Americans have habituated to the horror of the pandemic. Health-care workers are still drowning in it. 6/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Biden’s win gave many health-care workers a second wind. Help is coming. A vaccine is coming. There is absolutely hope on the horizon.

But it’s still *on the horizon* and everything from here to there is on fire. 7/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
This is the crux of it: The U.S. must flatten the curve again.

In the next weeks, we will collectively decide how many Americans die before they can get a vaccine next year & how many health-care workers are broken in the process. /8

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
I know this is horrible & depressing. But we all have to sit with this and not look away. Health-care workers don’t get to. And they need help.

Who saves the people who save everyone else?

Everyone else. /9

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
For more stories, look at some of the replies to this thread:
And if you read my piece on health-care workers, do also read Caroline’s. It really captures what is at stake.

In which @zeynep continues her incredible streak of being very right about things. Listen to her.

theatlantic.com/health/archive…

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More from @edyong209

Ed Yong is not here Profile picture
Jul 28, 2023
Some news: After 8 years & 750 stories, I've decided to leave The Atlantic. Today's my last day.
Being a writer means you can’t say things like "I can’t tell you what this means" cos, well, I can. That's kind of the point of me. So here’s an attempt at looking back & forward: 1/
I’m really proud of the work I did here. Hagfish. Lichens. Endlings. Source diversity. 60+ pandemic pieces. Long COVID especially. More important than the awards, I know this work helped people, and it changed my understanding of what journalism can do & whom it should serve. 2/
That work depended on a team. All my love to Sarah Laskow & Ross Andersen, dear friends & amazing editors; everyone on the sci/tech/health desk, still the best in the biz; and the indefatigable copy-edit, fact-check, art, audience & comms teams. 3/
Read 9 tweets
Ed Yong is not here Profile picture
Jul 27, 2023
🛑I wrote about what “fatigue” really means for people with long COVID and ME/CFS, and why this profoundly debilitating symptom is so often misunderstood and trivialized.

(This piece also covers PEM.) 1/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
First, an important note. I’ve been told that this piece will be free to read for 24 hours, but will then go behind the paywall. Best I could do. If you’re not a subscriber and this is useful to you or your loved ones, I’d suggest saving a copy ASAP. 2/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
When long-haulers talk about their fatigue, they often hear “Oh I’m tired too”. But theirs is utterly different to the everyday version healthy people get. More severe. Very hard to push through (& costly if you try). Not cured by sleep. Multifaceted. 3/ https://t.co/yqZoRGtyxAtheatlantic.com/health/archive…

Fatigue is among the most common and most disabling of long COVID’s symptoms, and a signature of similar chronic illnesses such as myalgic encephalomyelitis (also known as chronic fatigue syndrome or ME/CFS). But in these diseases, fatigue is so distinct from everyday weariness that most of the people I have talked with were unprepared for how severe, multifaceted, and persistent it can be. For a start, this fatigue isn’t really a single symptom; it has many faces. It can weigh the body down: Lisa Geiszler likens it to “wearing a lead exoskeleton on a planet with extremely high gravity, wh...
And though normal fatigue is temporary and amenable to agency—even after a marathon, you can will yourself into a shower, and you’ll feel better after sleeping—rest often fails to cure the fatigue of long COVID or ME/CFS. “I wake up fatigued,” Letícia Soares, who has long COVID, told me.
Read 13 tweets
Ed Yong is not here Profile picture
Apr 19, 2023
👋I’m back. And I wrote about the current wave of attempts to downplay long COVID—less outright denial & more "it’s real but no big deal".

Except: it very much is. It’s a substantial and ongoing crisis that still demands our attention. 1/
theatlantic.com/health/archive…
This piece addresses the gaping flaws in the most common downplaying arguments. It covers biomarkers, disability claims, the spectrum of severity, the oft-repeated “I don’t’ know anyone with long COVID” line, and more. 2/
theatlantic.com/health/archive…
A key point: The flaws in these arguments become clear if you actually talk to long-haulers (& clinicians with extensive experience in treating them). Their experiences are the ground truth against which all other data must be understood. 3/
theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 6 tweets
Ed Yong is not here Profile picture
Sep 30, 2022
🧵Some personal news: I’m taking a 6-month sabbatical, starting now. These past 3 years have been the most professionally meaningful of my life, but they’ve also deeply broken me. The pandemic isn’t over, but after a long time spent staring into the sun, I need to blink. 1/
I’ve talked openly about the mental health challenges of pandemic reporting—e.g. & traumastewardship.com/2022/02/ed-yon… I know stepping away is a huge privilege most people don’t have. Persistence matters, but it has limits, and I’ve long since reached mine. 2/
When I’ve interviewed healthcare workers & others about burnout, there are basically 3 roads they take.
1) Double down on duty and mission.
2) Find community.
3) Step away.
I’ve done the first for as long as I can. I’m now doing the third to focus on the second. 3/
Read 12 tweets
Ed Yong is not here Profile picture
Sep 29, 2022
🧵I want to share some thoughts about reporting on long COVID and other complex chronic illnesses. (e.g. below)
This is a thread about the ethos behind these pieces, and how I’ve approached interviewing, writing, and the rest of it. 1/
I still consider myself new to this kind of reporting & am learning as I go. This isn’t a finger-wagging lecture. I'm just sharing some stuff I've thought about a lot. I hope it will be helpful to other journalists who want to do this kind of work & inspire more to do so. 2/
And many (most?) of these ideas and principles also apply to other pieces I’ve written about people who’ve taken the brunt of the pandemic, including those grieving loved ones lost to COVID, immunocompromised folks, and burned-out healthcare workers. 3/
Read 32 tweets
Ed Yong is not here Profile picture
Sep 26, 2022
🚨I wrote about ME/CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome). The US has millions of people with it & maybe two dozen docs who specialize in it.

This medical crisis needs urgent attention, esp. now COVID has hugely increased the number of long-haulers. 1/
theatlantic.com/health/archive…
ME/CFS involves a panoply of debilitating symptoms that affect almost every organ system. People are intensely sick for years or decades. They spend much of that time getting stigmatized, dismissed, misdiagnosed. 2/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
At the highest estimates, Americans with ME/CFS outnumber the populations of 15 individual states. But there aren’t enough ME/CFS specialists to fill a Major League baseball roster. Most patients never get a diagnosis, let alone any kind of care. 3/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 14 tweets

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