“No denial, minimizing, or gaslighting.” How The Sick Times is covering the Long Covid crisis

One year in, the publication’s founders share what they’ve learned — and what they anticipate might change under Trump 2.0.

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Dec 18, 2024

Miles Griffis (left) and Betsy Ladyzhets. *Photo by Aaron Robey*

By one estimate, more than 400 million people globally are affected by Long Covid, the debilitating, and sometimes fatal, disease that follows a SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, while Covid itself continues to rage, many people (including those in the media) have moved on, referring to the pandemic in the past tense.

Not so at The Sick Times, a four-person nonprofit newsroom dedicated to the Long Covid crisis. “Unlike many outlets, we continue to report on the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” reads The Sick Times’ mission statement. “No denial, minimizing, or gaslighting here.”

The Sick Times was founded by Betsy Ladyzhets, a Brooklyn-based writer who previously ran the COVID-19 Data Dispatch blog and newsletter and freelanced about Covid and public health for outlets such as Science News and The Atlantic, and Miles Griffis, a Los Angeles–based journalist who’s written about Covid, science, and LGBTQ+ issues for publications including National Geographic and Popular Science. Griffis was disabled by Long Covid after a February 2020 infection.

The duo’s focus these days is largely public service journalism. “Miles and I both come from science journalism, where the ideal of the profession is thought of as writing these beautiful, longform narrative features,” Ladyzhets tells Depth Perception. “But we realized that’s not really what people need, or what people really want to be reading. What people want is information that matters to them, that they can do something with.”

Earlier this month, The Sick Times marked its one-year anniversary with the release of a printable zine highlighting some of the publication’s best work, in addition to Covid and Long Covid resources. Ladyzhets and Griffis recently spoke to Depth Perception about how the mainstream media gets Covid coverage wrong, what to expect from the second Trump administration, and more. The following has been edited for length and clarity. —Mark Yarm

If you had to give the mainstream media’s coverage of Covid and Long Covid a grade, what would it be?

Ladyzhets: Man, I feel like it varies so widely. There are some who have done a really great job. Everybody points to Ed Yong, who won a Pulitzer for his coverage of the pandemic [in The Atlantic]. We’re lucky to now have him on our advisory board at The Sick Times. But a lot of publications, maybe a D.

Griffis: I would say a D to F for most. The problem with the mainstream media is that they’re really focused on recovery stories. People just love a recovery story, even if there’s really no scientific backing behind it. For instance, there was a recent one that was like, “70% of kids after two years recover from Long Covid.”

Ladyzhets: All the media coverage was like, “70% recover.” But 30% didn’t recover! That’s pretty significant. That’s a huge population.

What are some other shortcomings in the way the mainstream media is addressing this crisis?

Ladyzhets: A lot of it is in the broad strokes, like painting the pandemic as an era that has ended. You see this completely across the board, in all kinds of stories. A couple of months ago, I was part of a panel for IRE’s AccessFest, which is an online conference focusing on different accessibility issues within journalism. We had a Covid session, and one of the things we talked about was the prevalence of phrases like “during the pandemic” or “during COVID,” when writers are referring to 2020 or 2021. There’s a real lack of acknowledgement that we’re still living with this crisis, and how that connects to every single part of people’s lives.

Griffis: Among the larger media there’s the idea that Long Covid isn’t a big deal. Today, even big publications write that “Long Covid lasts for weeks or months.” I’m coming up on five years with Long Covid in February. It just completely goes against the lived experience of millions of people. It does a big disservice to their readership, too, because you're not being honest with what the risks of a Covid infection can be, especially since we know it affects so many people and is so prevalent and can get worse with reinfections.

How do you combat that mentality?

Ladyzhets: We do our best to give our readers tools and information to push back. Also, as someone who is more of an able-bodied ally, so to speak, I try to be out there at the journalism conferences wearing my N95, getting on the mic and asking questions about Covid.

I suspect that when you get on the mic at a conference you’re not particularly popular because people don’t want to think about this.

Ladyzhets: Actually, this is a weird experience that I’ve had multiple times: People come up and thank me for doing that kind of thing, but they’re not wearing a mask. I find it so jarring. I’m like, “I appreciate this, but also I don’t really know how to continue the conversation with you.” I was at the science writers’ annual meeting a few weeks ago, and this happened to me several times. I had people who were interested in writing for us. But I was like, “If you’re not wearing a mask right now, you have a higher bar to demonstrate to us that you have expertise on this topic.”

Disinformation is swirling all around us

Months before the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, COVID skeptics resisting Germany’s public health measures stormed the Reichstag. Were they driven by their beliefs or were they propelled by something else, a complex web of online disinformation?

“Querdenken Everything” — a dizzying, award-winning dual profile by Darren Loucaides — is the story of that day and its consequences, a true tale of conspiracy theories, their causes, and their effects. Free to read from Long Lead.

These are dark days for the media, in terms of the business itself and Trump declaring journalists “the enemy of the people.” What gives you hope for the future of journalism?

Ladyzhets: The feedback we get from our readers. It feels very meaningful when somebody has a question and we’re able to answer it, or when a story or an essay that we published resonates with people. That means we’re on the right track. And luckily, we see that a lot.

Griffis: I see a lot of hope in other nonprofit newsrooms that are popping up. I’m very inspired by all those other journalists who have taken the step to create their own space and fill niches for different audiences.

Betsy, you recently wrote a piece about how Long Covid advocates and researchers still have hope, despite the Trump administration coming in with all these anti-vaxxers and Covid minimizers or deniers. What are you both anticipating over the next few years?

Ladyzhets: That story was challenging in part because everyone I talked to was saying there’s a lot of uncertainty. Like RFK Jr. claims to have a real focus on chronic disease, and Long Covid is a chronic disease — but then it comes from an infection, and he doesn’t want to focus on infectious disease. So, there’s some uncertainty on exactly how that will play out in terms of things like the NIH budget going forward, or what’s going to happen to the CDC’s communication on Covid and other infectious diseases.

Another thing that I think is important to emphasize about Trump coming in is that Biden hasn’t been good on Covid or Long Covid, either. He and his administration have done a lot of work to promote this end to the pandemic, and he hasn’t done that much to provide funding for Long Covid research. A lot of people in the Long Covid community are very disillusioned with the federal government in general and just want to keep their heads down, continuing to work on things like mask blocs and other more local kinds of organizing.

Griffis: What is encouraging is there are so many organizations and groups that are doing really important research outside of the NIH already, so if funding does go away under Trump, there’s still really great private research that has already been leading the way. A cure or potential treatment will probably come from private funding, anyway, because it's more high risk, high reward, and they’re really looking at the root cause. Also, it’s important to remember that Long Covid is this massive global issue. As Americans, we think, This is the end. But there’s so much potential around the world from people working on this problem.

“No denial, minimizing, or gaslighting.” How The Sick Times is covering the Long Covid crisis

One year in, the publication’s founders share what they’ve learned — and what they anticipate might change under Trump 2.0.

Disinformation is swirling all around us

Further reading from The Sick Times

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