Ed Yong reflektiert in der NY Times darüber, wie er durch die Berichterstattung zu Long Covid – zu dem Zeitpunkt, als er darüber berichtete, noch keine anerkannte Krankheit – ein besserer Journalist wurde.
I wrote about long Covid in June 2020. In the following days, I got more than 100 emails from people who […] have told me that through those pieces, they better understood what was happening to them, found community and medical care, and felt the relief of recognition at a time when friends, family members and health care professionals brushed off their ordeal as imaginary. As a science writer, I have written about many topics throughout my career. None have affected me more than long Covid. None have more profoundly changed my view about what journalism can achieve and how it can do so.
Covering long Covid solidified my view that science is not the objective, neutral force it is often misconstrued as. It is instead a human endeavor, relentlessly buffeted by our culture, values and politics. As energy-depleting illnesses that disproportionately affect women, long Covid and M.E./C.F.S. [myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome] are easily belittled by a sexist society that trivializes women’s pain, and a capitalist one that values people according to their productivity. Societal dismissal leads to scientific neglect, and a lack of research becomes fodder for further skepticism. I understood these dynamics only after interviewing social scientists, disability scholars and patients themselves, whose voices are often absent or minimized in the media. Like the pandemic writ large, long Covid is not just a health problem. It is a social one, and must also be understood as such.
Ed Yong
Nach Lektüre des Artikels bin ich der Meinung, dass Ed Yong in Wirklichkeit über eine immer wieder in Vergessenheit geratene Funktion qualitativ hochwertigen Journalismus berichtet: Menschen zu bestärken und zu motivieren, und somit tatsächlich etwas zu bewirken. Das aber nicht etwa durch Marketing oder Propaganda (wie in irgendeinem depperten Telegram-Kanal, in dem Screenshots mit Gleichgeschalteten Gleichgesinnten geteilt werden und die Motivation aus einem niederen Instinkt erwächst), sondern durch das Beschreiben, Reflektieren und Kommentieren nachvollziehbarer, solider Recherche. Ein nobles Unterfangen mit – leider – schrumpfendem Publikum.