Thread by @edyong209

I want to say something more about this piece on immunocompromised people, and how I’m thinking about journalism in this moment. 1/

https://twitter.com/edyong209/status/1493969707849953284

I’d love it if these pieces change minds; the odds feel low sometimes but the possibility exists, and we should shoot for it. But even if that doesn’t happen, we can still fulfil the incredibly important goal of making marginalized people feel seen and heard. 2/

Bearing witness to suffering is one of the most profoundly important things we can do as journalists—and as people. In a world where so many folks hear the implicit message that their lives don’t matter, our work can say: Actually, they do. 3/

This should, surely, be one of our highest priorities. It is famously said that journalism’s purpose is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. It’s not to coddle the privileged and privilege the coddled. 4/

Others wrote about immunocompromised people way before I did, including this great piece by my friend @timrequarth at Slate 5/ slate.com/technology/202…

Immunocompromised people have written about themselves; this essay from @lindsayryanmd is tragic, poignant, and just achingly beautiful 6/ jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/…

And just one day after my piece, @AmandaMoMorris and @MaggieAstor have a really good one out in the NYT: nytimes.com/2022/02/17/us/… 7/

I’m heartened to see these, and proud to be among them. I usually ask people with chronic illnesses what journalists commonly get wrong when writing about them. One immunocompromised person just laughed and said, “No one writes about us.” That can change. 8/

Thanks to everyone who read and shared this. I hope it helped. Fin/
theatlantic.com/health/archive…

PS. Another good piece, which came out yesterday, from an immunocompromised physician.

https://twitter.com/diptisbarot/status/1493988704717012994