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"Protesters so ill, they couldn't get arrested" - NY Times opinion piece 10-27-22

Rufous McKinney

Senior Member
Messages
13,249
Thats an amazing piece of writing. Example of "seeing" a situation from a totally different unique perspective.

I'm not fighting back. Fighting won't help. Surrender, that might.

And the title is so perfect, that somehow, we can't even get ourselves decently arrested....
 

Alvin2

The good news is patients don't die the bad news..
Messages
2,995
Bump: this opinion piece is getting alot of attention!
Indeed!
Here is two of the comments, the second one is the article author:
Pam
Hi, Zeynep. You are a special human to cover this as you did (although it shouldn't take a special human). As a 30 year sufferer of ME/CFS, I finally feel recognized for the scope of physical, medical, mental and societal torture I've endured. Just curious, how did you enter into our world? Did you know someone with ME/CFS?

Zeynep Tufekci
Columnist
@Pam Thank you. But indeed, it's not special. So, yes and no. Prepandemic, I knew of the illness, and I had watched Unrest, and had a connection to the director. I didn't have a personal tie or deep knowledge. Last year, I started researching Long Covid because I wasn't seeing sufficient coverage (gotten a bit better recently) and thought maybe I could contribute. Being an academic I dug into the history of postviral conditions. I'm also interested in depression and exercise, as one of my close friends suffers from it, and am normally sympathetic to the view that exercise is a great for health. Anyway, the more I dug in to the history and talked to people who had fallen ill over many decades, and read primary literature from aftermath of epidemics—going back to 1385—the more I was struck by the coherent narratives and the similarities, and realized this was likely similar to the case, say, peptic ulcers (caused by bacteria attributed to personality, finally figured out by a doctor who asked the right questions). Plus, as I spoke with patients with ME, my respect for their strength grew. It's so tough! I didn't see the anhedonia of depression as much as I saw limits. Plus, our culture makes it hard to accept just pushing through doesn't work. So, a community who deserves respect and support, a scientific mystery that could solve more ailments, and a big sociological component. That's a good intersection for my work. The least I can do is try to convey its reality.