I created this plot to analyze if COVID-19 somehow contributed to an increased awareness for CFS/ME.
The latest Google Trends data show increased searches for Long COVID in Google and YouTube - multitudes greater than for CFS/ME. There is no increased awareness for CFS/ME from Long-COVID searches since there is no upwards trend in the overall CFS data.
The news reporting also reflects a proportional increase in interest for Long COVID in relation to CFS/ME which remains an untouched topic. There is a clear disproportion between the public interest (indicated by searches) for Long COVID and the news reporting on the subject.
A bias in news reporting becomes visible when the COVID-19 medication candidates Remdesivir and Ivermectin are taken into account. Ivermectin is a repurposed drug with barely any lobby. Its use for COVID-19 is scientifically proven. Remdesivir has a great pharma lobby. Its use for COVID-19 is unproven. Among all subjects, Remdesivir received the greatest attention from online news agencies. Compared to these drugs, there is barely any reporting on the Long COVID subject, not to mention CFS/ME. Even in the last months, Remdesivir has received more attention.
By "news reporting" I not only mean how often the press writes about it, but also how Google's, Facebook's, Twitter's, and other algorithms rank the articles. These internet companies also have their share in the opinion-forming process.
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