[wikitopian]

Long Covid is merely a small part of a broader story of chronic inflammation and how millions and millions of people are suffering from invisible autoimmune consequences of lyme disease, STDs, and long forgotten colds and flus that triggered lifelong inflammatory reactions.

It's the hidden cause of most cancer, a major driver of the obesity epidemic, and is surely subtracting more years of life from more people than the covid pandemic ever did. I'm optimistic that we'll have the diagnostic criteria and awareness in the medical field in the future where we will be able to diagnose, measure, and treat chronic autoimmune inflammation rather than debating whether or not everybody's faking it.

Disclaimer: Some people are definitely faking it. I know it. You know it. Everybody knows it. I'm not disputing that. If we can start understanding it as chronic autoimmune inflammation, for which there can be solid diagnostic criteria, rather than as "long covid" or "chronic lyme disease" or whatever, we can separate the legitimately ill from the disability scammers.

[majormajor]

When you talk about hopefully being able to diagnose in the future, is your view that there are large groups of people with chronic inflammation that isn't showing up in any existing inflammatory diagnostic methods like blood tests or various types of imaging?

[wikitopian]

I believe that the diagnostic methods for testing chronic inflammation can and must be improved, and that chronic inflammation deserves far more R&D investment than it currently receives.

[ryanobjc]

Not talking to you specifically, but sure glad that because a few people are faking it we can ignore a huge human health issue instead!

Wow that sure takes a load off, time to relax and drink some inflammation increasing alcohol!

[wikitopian]

It's always the elephant in the room with invisible illness.