NYTimes: What Long Covid Shows Us About the Limits of Medicine

Abigail A. Dumes, an Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and an expert on Lyme disease and contested illness, published a recent guest essay in The New York Times, titled “What Long Covid Shows Us about the Limits of Medicine“. The essay stresses the need for medical professionals to listen to their patients and acknowledge the uncertainty involved with Long Covid.

As Dr. Dumes writes:

Patients with contested and chronic illnesses also tend to have long medical histories. These patients need longer than 15 minutes to tell their story, and providers need more than 15 minutes to listen to them. A broad-scale investment in primary care that would allow providers to offer longer appointments that are fully covered by insurance would help to address this need. Additionally, medical schools should introduce a social science-informed understanding of contested illnesses. Despite seeming marginal, “medically unexplained” illnesses are actually some of the most frequently seen conditions in primary care. The more familiar physicians are with these illnesses, the fewer opportunities there will be for misunderstanding.

Acknowledging uncertainty” — what long Covid patients have called for — is a fitting refrain for our times. As much as they wanted answers, the Lyme patients I interviewed also wanted physicians who could admit what they didn’t know. Starting with what we don’t know — and leading with humility and empathy — seems like a good place to begin.

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