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The Covid-Is-Not-Over Newsletter · Jun 12, 2026

Read all about it: Long Covid is real and that Wired article is full of lies

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John Dupuis · The Covid-Is-Not-Over Newsletter

Welcome to the latest issue of the Covid-Is-Not-Over Newsletter!

First of all, my annual summer break is coming up in a couple of weeks. Next week will be the last regular issue until sometime towards the end of July or beginning of August. As in the past, I’ll be putting out (probably) four thematic bonus issues collecting extra links that I’ve collected over the course of the last six months or so but haven’t used. The themes will be Long Covid, transmission/masking/etc., transformational effects of the pandemic, and Covid is generally bad for you. I also have a shib ton of AI-related links (and I mean a shib ton), so I’m tempted to dump those out in a giant link post as well. We’ll see.

And on to the WTFkery of the Week Award, Climate Edition. Would you believe Super-rich’s assets cause outsized amount of climate harm, study says? Of course you would The WTFkery of the Week Award, Ebola Edition goes to Ebola outbreak could rival the worst on record. Of course it could.

We have a theme for this week’s issue. And that would be that Wired article from a week or so ago. You’ve probably heard about it, and maybe even read it yourself. It’s a proud addition to the “it’s all in your head” tradition of Long Covid Article.

There’s been a few vigorous takedowns of the article on social media so far: Dr Rae Duncan; Manuel; Ruiz; Tern; and The Sick Times. If you have any favourites that I’ve missed, please add them in the comments for this post!

If you’re as pissed off about the Wired article as I am, sign the Change.org petition asking for it to be retracted. They’ve already got over 1200 signitures!

The first bunch of featured articles this week all speak to the real burden of Long Covid on patients and society. After that, there’s a bunch of article-length take downs that I’ve excerpted.

Make it past the featured articles, just before the Ebola/Hantavirus play by play, and you’ll find this week’s musical interlude which remembers Anthony Stewart Head who played Ruppert Giles on my favourite TV show of all time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Like! Share! Subscribe!

There is currently no paid subscription option for this newsletter and I do not have any plans to switch to that model. However, Substack does have an option where subscribers can pledge to subscribe “just in case” and a few of you have done so. I very much appreciated the vote of confidence in what I’m doing here. If you want to send a little “Thank You” I have a Ko-fi tip jar set up. It. My plan is to spend whatever is donated by supporting artists on Bandcamp.

Buy me a Rupert Giles tea cosy!

Long COVID may be affecting far more Americans than current estimates suggest, with a study published last week in JAMA Network Open estimating that roughly one in six people infected with SARS-CoV-2 develop the condition, and nearly 90% go on to experience chronic health problems. …

“Our finding of persistently increasing cumulative prevalence through mid-2024 (4 years into the pandemic and well after widespread vaccination) contradicts assumptions that PASC represents a legacy of early, severe infection waves,” the authors write.

When the researchers used the quarterly increases they observed—which ranged from 0.3% to 1.5%—to estimate the relative increase in cumulative long-COVID prevalence over a decade, they found rates could increase 13% to 81%, “underscoring the substantial long-term burden if current trends persist.”

The study also revealed substantial differences in how long COVID manifests. Systemic, respiratory, and gastrointestinal symptoms were common across all regions, but endocrine complications varied in different parts of the country. New England patients were more likely to experience thyroid-related conditions, while patients in Texas, California, and Pennsylvania showed more metabolic abnormalities such as prediabetes and hyperglycemia.

From 2021 to 2023, American Indian and Alaska Natives (AIANs) reported higher rates of COVID-19 and long COVID than their non-AIAN counterparts, according to a non–peer-reviewed study published on the Research Square preprint platform.

Led by a researcher from the US National Bureau of Economic Research, the study team surveyed more than 20,000 adult respondents, including public-use files (datasets stripped of identifying information) and an oversample of AIANs, to the California Health Interview Survey from 2021 to 2023.

The goal was to estimate associations between demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics and COVID-19 infection, long-COVID symptoms, vaccination status, testing behavior, food insecurity, job loss, and fewer work hours.

By the end of 2020, “AIAN communities had approximately 1.6 times the number of confirmed cases, 2.4 times the number of hospitalizations, and twice the mortality rates associated with COVID-19 relative to the U.S. population overall,” the authors noted.

As the first and largest study of its kind in the U.S. to publish longitudinal data, researchers reported on symptoms that children experienced in the first 12 months after enrollment in the study. They identified 20 symptoms more commonly reported in those who had COVID-19, including headaches, fatigue, forgetfulness, gastrointestinal issues, malaise and respiratory issues. Symptoms varied by age, with some appearing early and others persisting or emerging months later.

“This study helps us understand how post-COVID symptoms in children evolve over time, and importantly, across different age groups,” said Alexandra Yonts, MD, infectious diseases specialist at Children’s National and co-lead author of the study. “Since childhood is such a dynamic period of growth and development, tracking these symptoms at multiple time points and in children of many different ages is critical to know what the true long-term impacts of SARS-CoV-2 infection look like in the pediatric population.”

This one is for my Covid-realist, airborne-airware pals.

It is grueling to live this way, isn’t it?

Feeling like you’re on the margins of society, like everyone is living a life you’re not allowed to fully participate in. Like you’re the black sheep.

The cognitive dissonance of living a “covid conscious” (CC) life while 99% of the world has moved on and returned to “normal” (but let’s not forget about the >20 million people who died worldwide from Covid and who no longer have a voice) is hard to stomach on a daily basis. Especially when you know the science is on your side.

There is a recurring pattern in the history of medicine that still pops up from time to time. When our understanding of a disease lags far behind the need for explanations, biology becomes a matter of one’s own perception. This inevitably shifts the burden of proof back onto the people we should be helping; those who suffer with the disease.

A recent essay on Long COVID published in WIRED magazine leans into this familiar trope, reframing the condition as a matter of unrealistic expectations. The essay suggested that perhaps Long COVID is less about the well-documented biological disruptions taking place and more about how the brain interprets them. That if we can just change the brain’s interpretation, then we might change the experience and fix the problem.

The premise seems powerful. But it puts the cart before the horse. It’s an oversimplification that confuses a complex multisystem pathophysiology with psychogenesis. This essay did a speed-run of one of medicine’s oldest mistakes within the span of a mere 7,000 words.

Given the ever-increasing number and quality of studies documenting what we have come to understand about the pathophysiology of Long COVID, it is very difficult to think Long COVID is principally a disorder of perception. Instead of a disorder of perception, the existing scientific literature describes a multi-system disease of bioenergetic failure, immune dysregulation, and vascular dysfunction.

Perhaps Levinovitz or Kennedy or Schubiner can explain how my mind conjured up vasculitis, micro clots, endothelial damage, mitochondria damage, small fiber neuropathy and an immune system that was so diminished, I required IVIG infusions in 2022.

And then we are back to fear. The final statement, where the author reveals himself as benign and well-meaning and on the side of the patients, states that he’d like society to adjust in such a way that nobody has to fear having their symptoms not taken seriously, having their illness seen as not ‘real’, having their needs for support not being met, etc. Which would be great if we could achieve that (in today’s climate?! You’re having a laugh), as it would definitely enhance our lives while living with this horrible illness.

What I don’t understand though is how he can suggest that the fear (actually, reality) of facing these extra obstacles is keeping us ill, and removing them could make us better. I really don’t get it. He states that the only reason we hold on to the ‘belief’ that our illness is ‘biological’ is to give it legitimacy (I thought we all thought that now in 2026?).

What the community actually rejects

So when the community pushes back, understand what it is pushing back against, because the article blurs the line on purpose, and the blur is where the argument lives.

The community does not reject CBT. I have taught CBT. What it rejects is CBT and graded exercise sold as a cure, premised on the idea that the illness persists because the patient holds a false belief about being sick, and that correcting the belief and pushing through the symptoms will restore function. That is a different claim, and it is not rejected out of stubbornness. It is rejected because of what happens when it is followed.

This is the distinction I spent years on the clinical side of, so let me be precise about it. CBT is extraordinary at what it is built for: changing the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, loosening catastrophic spirals, building coping capacity. It is not built to repair a dysregulated immune response or restore mitochondrial function after a viral insult. Asking it to cure ME/CFS is not a controversial stretch. It is a category error, like prescribing a splint for an infection. The splint is a fine tool. It is the wrong tool for that job, and insisting otherwise does not help the patient. It blames them when the wrong tool fails.

I also ask the Professor why, in the name of responsible journalism, he did not include interviews with the numerous people who have tried brain training only to have it fail and be very taxing on their limited resources?

Millions of Americans are ill with this disease. It is crippling children. We have strong advocacy and public awareness of many illnesses, but not enough, yet, for this one. That needs to change, and I strongly urge Wired to be a part of that change. You have a unique position and responsibility. I will help however I can. But my message does not carry the same weight or influence.

I know the time has passed for you to have carefully considered the fairness and impact of this article before publishing it. A degree of permanent damage has been done. But I ask you again to retract it, and do better. I hope that in the future you will publish articles to make Long Covid/ME/CFS better understood, better known, better funded, better appreciated. I hope you make every effort to do your part.

Actually, it turns out that the article is part of Levinovitz’ forthcoming book, which is called “Demons by Another Name: Biology, Belief and the Stories That Make Us Sick.” Gee, I wonder what it’s about??? Perhaps its premise might help explain why this article reads as if Levinovitz is straining mightily to interpret patients’ experiences in ways that conform to a preferred narrative while disregarding well-documented examples of research misconduct.

Levinovitz is a professor of religion at James Madison University, a well-regarded public educational institution in Harrisonburg, Virginia. According to his JMU page, his research “focuses primarily on the relationship between religion, literature, and science.” In 2021, he wrote an excellent article on Long Covid for VICE. I was quoted in that article, and I was quoted in this one—both times accurately, which is no small thing! I’ve made comments online about the new Wired piece, not all of them negative, but this is my first post about it, and likely not the last.

  1. The World Cup’s Real Viral Threats Aren’t Ebola Or Hantavirus

  2. New open-access COVID-19 dataset supports reproducible clinical research

  3. Hantavirus and Ebola: Do recent outbreaks expose post-COVID complacency? | Control Risks

  4. Indie Bookstores with Masking & Covid Policies in 2026

  5. Why have we forgotten about Covid? | The Spectator

  6. How you can stop your cat from bringing home unwelcome pathogens

  7. Denied, Denied and Denied

  8. In its 50-year history, global vaccination program generated $16 in benefits for every $1 invested | CIDRAP

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