Apologies- I didn’t mean to suggest they got better medical treatment. You’re correct that the state of the art is terrible. But doctors, employers, and family members will be nicer to people labeled with long covid than they will be to people with a different label of the same constellation of symptoms.
TBC I’m not disputing your description of “takes 6 doctors to get diagnosed, and that last doctor still can’t help”. If anything I think it glosses over how awful the first 5 doctors are on average. But 6 doctors, followed by a socially legitimized diagnosis, is still better than the average fatigue-inflammation-brainfog-metabolic-neuro-??? cluster because that cluster is treated miserably.
Social legitimacy varies by social group, of course. Some people are assholes about long covid and that’s devastating for their friends, family, and employees who suffer from it. But I have trouble imagining any of them would be nicer about a CFS or chronic Lyme diagnosis, while I think there are a decent chunk of people who mock those diagnoses while taking long covid seriously.
Apologies- I didn’t mean to suggest they got better medical treatment. You’re correct that the state of the art is terrible. But doctors, employers, and family members will be nicer to people labeled with long covid than they will be to people with a different label of the same constellation of symptoms.
TBC I’m not disputing your description of “takes 6 doctors to get diagnosed, and that last doctor still can’t help”. If anything I think it glosses over how awful the first 5 doctors are on average. But 6 doctors, followed by a socially legitimized diagnosis, is still better than the average fatigue-inflammation-brainfog-metabolic-neuro-??? cluster because that cluster is treated miserably.
Social legitimacy varies by social group, of course. Some people are assholes about long covid and that’s devastating for their friends, family, and employees who suffer from it. But I have trouble imagining any of them would be nicer about a CFS or chronic Lyme diagnosis, while I think there are a decent chunk of people who mock those diagnoses while taking long covid seriously.