The Sick Times

10/22/2025

It's been a month since RFK Jr. convened a Long COVID roundtable event with leading researchers and government officials. Preliminary meetings are occurring amid the ongoing government shutdown, while some advocates call for his removal.

Read more from Betsy Ladyzhets:

Preliminary meetings are occurring amid the ongoing government shutdown, while some advocates call for Health Secretary Kennedy’s removal

10/21/2025

The U.S. is still largely without COVID-19 and other infectious disease data as the government shutdown continues. Limited COVID-19 data that we do have suggest that disease levels are still on the decline, as of mid-October. https://bit.ly/4nfAxAk

10/20/2025

After a half century of anti-cigarette advocacy, the chemical substrate ni****ne, which makes up about 3% of the to***co plant, is stepping into its own limelight. Ni****ne patches, especially, are having a heyday for their purported health benefits. After 40 years on the market as a cigarette-replacement therapy, the patches have found an unlikely audience among people with chronic illnesses — including those with Long COVID.

Among the people who have tried ni****ne, there have been a wide variety of responses. Some cite it as curative. Some say it has made them sicker.

Some people with Long COVID and the providers who were treating them wondered if ni****ne, delivered by a mechanism other than ci******es, might help with the chronic disease. For the next several years, white papers used anecdotal evidence to expand on that initial hypothesis.

10/16/2025

Even as COVID-19 spreads at high rates, some businesses are trying to force workers to unmask.

The Sick Times spoke with 5 workers affected by anti-mask attitudes in their workplaces, as well as organizers and a disability law expert, about how to push back against these policies.

While some anti-mask policies have failed — a win for workers — there is a larger effort to ban masks in the U.S. on state and local levels. And more businesses may attempt to ban masks in the workplace even though these policies may violate laws that protect masks as accessibility devices. The ...

10/16/2025

🔬 Large study found SARS-CoV-2 infection associated with elevated risks of HPV-related cancer

🩸 Small study found a potential blood test for ME

🧸 Researchers have developed device that may be able to measure microclots in children with Long COVID

This week's research: https://bit.ly/4hit16m

10/15/2025

National COVID-19 trends data are largely unavailable this week from the CDC. The COVID-19 data that we do have, from independent wastewater surveillance and state public health departments, indicate that disease levels continue to decline across most of the U.S. bit.ly/4ogSu29

10/10/2025

A group of 53 people with joined a clinical trial for Vyvgart. For many of them, the treatment changed everything.

Then, without warning, Argenx canceled the trial.

Most of them have now relapsed.

They're calling on the NIH and HHS to study the drug:

We are a group of 53 individuals with Long COVID from across the U.S. In 2023, we joined a Long COVID clinical trial for Vyvgart (efgartigimod), a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the autoimmune disease myasthenia gravis. Without warning, the trial was canceled in June 202...

10/09/2025

🧸 Risk of LC doubled in children following SARS-C0V-2 reinfection

🩸 Researchers may have found a biomarker & treatment target for cognitive dysfunction in LC

💉 Clinical trial recruiting to test the GLP-1 agonist drug Liraglutide for LC

This week's research updates: https://bit.ly/48j2kMt

10/08/2025

Hypermobile EDS is a syndrome affecting connective tissues throughout the body. It can emerge after viral infections like SARS-CoV-2 and give people a higher risk of developing Long COVID.

Current diagnostic criteria for hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS), a common comorbidity of Long COVID, are restrictive. The Ehlers-Danlos Society is developing new hEDS criteria that will be released in 2026.

10/07/2025

We’ve just hit 10,000 newsletter subscribers! To show our gratitude for reaching such a huge milestone, we’re giving away five The Sick Times swag packs, including pins, stickers, a patch, and our famous dad hat!

Sign up for our newsletter, or forward a recent newsletter to a friend, then comment “10K GIVEAWAY” below to be entered into our giveaway. Five readers will be randomly selected.

Thank you for your continued support of our Long COVID journalism!

https://thesicktimes.org/newsletter/

10/03/2025

Since developing Long COVID, Armani Guerra has battled debilitating symptoms, even as he applied for and began his MBA at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Now, he is organizing the first-ever IACC Case Competition.

On October 31, at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor, top graduate students will compete to develop innovative business solutions for the IACC community. This event, which will be open to the public, will include testimonials from people with Long COVID and an expert...

10/02/2025

🩸Thrombotic events doubled since 2020, reinfections increase risk of Long COVID

👃 Olfactory dysfunction occurred in people after SARS-CoV-2 infection

🧘‍♂️ A behavioral trial is assessing a vague “mindfulness intervention” for Long COVID.

This week's research: https://bit.ly/4mHhIpj