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25 Oct, 5 tweets, 2 min read
There's a lot of Facebook coverage out there today, but I want to especially highlight this piece by Adrienne, not just because it's amazing in itself, but because it represents the latest of a deeply incisive series, all of which you should read 1/
Pair it, for example, with this piece from last December about Facebook as a doomsday machine. 2/ theatlantic.com/technology/arc…
And follow those up with this piece from Sept on Facebook as an autocratic state. 3/

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
And finish with this one from 2018 about Facebook as a media company. 4/ theatlantic.com/technology/arc…
Part of the challenge of interpreting Facebook's action lies in understanding what it actually is. And Adrienne, for years now, has been thinking and writing deeply about that question. Her work helps us truly see the beast. /End

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More from @edyong209

Ed Yong Profile picture
23 Oct
🚨I wrote about public health’s history; why it spent the 20thC moving away from broad coalitions, political advocacy, and a crusading spirit that actively pushed for social reforms; and why it must regain those things to be relevant and effective. 1/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Public health is often cast as an underdog, invisible & ignored. That’s not the full story. In the 20thC, it made choices that silenced its voice, reduced its constituency, minimized its power. It “actively participated in its own marginalization.” 2/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Germ theory was a revolution that gave public health license to be less revolutionary. It allowed the field to move away from the social problems that underlie poor health towards a blinkered, individualistic, biomedical model—to its detriment, and ours. theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 8 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
8 Oct
I wrote about planarian flatworms that reproduce by tearing themselves in two.

Each piece behaves like a full animal; the front of the tail fragment will start acting like a head.

Each piece will regenerate a complete body, regrowing a brain if needed

theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
This piece begins with an animal ripping itself in two. And then it gets weird. theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
It’s an enormous if temporary relief to be writing a weird-nature story again theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
Read 5 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
2 Oct
This is the introductory essay that I wrote for the Best American Science & Nature Writing Anthology, which I edited this year. (Out Oct 12)

It’s about what it means to be a science writer, and how the pandemic changed the way I think about the field.

theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
Here’s the anthology, which you can preorder. I’m so proud of this selection and the 26 amazing writers whose pieces are featured. bookshop.org/books/the-best…
Also I wrote this essay in February, while still on book leave. It’s interesting how much it thematically overlaps with the piece I wrote this week, down to the Virchow ref and the germ theory bit. I promise this isn’t suddenly a Virchow stan account.

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 4 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
29 Sep
🚨Here's my new piece about our great challenge—control this pandemic while ALSO averting the next. For centuries, the US has been stuck in a Sisyphean cycle of panic & neglect. It can break that loop, but the window of opportunity is already closing. 1/
theatlantic.com/health/archive…
The opening chapter of the next pandemic is being written right now. I know, I know. Next one?! Can’t we get through this one first? No, sadly, we can't. History tells us we don't have time. Learn from the past immediately, or repeat it imminently. 2/
theatlantic.com/health/archive…
In some ways, Delta was an audition for the next pandemic--and one that we flubbed. Many of the actions we took this spring were headlong dives into the neglect phase of the cycle. This is a warning about how swiftly complacency can set in. 3/
theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 10 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
1 Sep
🚨I wrote a new piece about long-COVID, its future, and what long-haulers want.

The biomedical community is paying more attention but research is slow & often disregards the vast expertise that long-haulers have amassed about their own condition. 1/

theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
When I first reported on long COVID last June, few scientists or medics knew about it. When I described it to one disease expert, he said, “That’s unusual.” But it wasn’t—even then.

Things are better now. More recognition, coverage, studies. But… 2/

theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
Many long-haulers (and allied researchers) are frustrated about ongoing dismissal, flawed & inefficient research that ignores their needs & expertise, & watching people rediscover things they already knew. Academia is slow; their needs are urgent. 3/

theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
Read 11 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
12 Aug
🚨I wrote a big piece about how Delta affects the pandemic endgame.

Many folks are upset & confused by the last month. Here's an attempt to reset expectations, lay out our goals, map the near-term future, & show how the pandemic ends--which it will. 1/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
The bottom line: Vaccines remain the best way for *individuals* to protect themselves, but *societies* can't treat them as the only defense. Delta is so transmissible that vacc'n can blunt it, but we still need masks & the rest. 2/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
The endgame is endemicity—the virus will still be here but won’t cause as much damage due to widespread immunity. Most people will meet it. The goals are: ensure as many as poss do so after 2 vax doses; and spread the other infections out. 3/
theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 7 tweets

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