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Meghan O'Rourke meghanor.bsky.social
@meghanor
Author of NY Times Bestseller THE INVISIBLE KINGDOM: REIMAGINING CHRONIC ILLNESS, a finalist for the National Book Awards. Editor, The Yale Review.
Brooklyn, NY
meghanorourke.com
Joined April 2009
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    Meghan O'Rourke meghanor.bsky.social
    @meghanor
    Sep 15, 2022
    I'm over the moon to learn that The Invisible Kingdom was longlisted for the National Book Award in nonfiction! Thank you to all those who have read it and to the @natbookawards & to @riverheadbooks for everything, including this snazzy image!✨✨🙏🙏
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    Meghan O'Rourke meghanor.bsky.social
    @meghanor
    Apr 19, 2022
    Let's be really clear about what is happening at this stage in the pandemic: We are giving up on public health and embracing the privatization of health in ways that serve the able and young & write off anyone vulnerable. 1/
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    Meghan O'Rourke meghanor.bsky.social
    @meghanor
    Jul 6, 2022
    just gonna say it once, but listening to my 5 y o cough for minutes on end before crying and telling me, "I don't like how it feels" seven days into COVID is no fun. This is not mild for all kids, let alone adults.
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    Meghan O'Rourke meghanor.bsky.social
    @meghanor
    Aug 19, 2022
    Bedtime parting words from the 6yo: "I'm sorry that I am grumpy, Mom. It's just that I'm so tired all the time. Since I got COVID, I'm tired ALL the time, and that makes me grumpy. And I say things I don't mean. Then later, I feel bad that I said them." 💔
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    Meghan O'Rourke meghanor.bsky.social
    @meghanor
    Jul 31, 2020
    One of my favorite pieces of editorial guidance of all time, from the moving remembrances of John Homans at @NYMag: "Take some fucking words out,” he shouted at a writer. “It’s like a fucking Victorian living room in there.”
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    Meghan O'Rourke meghanor.bsky.social
    @meghanor
    Oct 24, 2024
    I think most people don't understand--perhaps because it is hard to live with this news--how this virus might have led to a new set point in human health, pivoting us to a world where a majority of people, including formerly young healthy people, are chronically ill.
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    Eric Topol
    @EricTopol
    Oct 24, 2024
    Many young US Marines with mild Covid prospectively followed ~1 year developed #LongCovid sequelae thelancet.com/journals/lanam…
    157K
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    Meghan O'Rourke meghanor.bsky.social
    @meghanor
    Apr 19, 2022
    Replying to @meghanor
    The national discussion largely ignores #longCOVID: many have no interest in imagining its reality--even though all are vulnerable to it. /4
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    Meghan O'Rourke meghanor.bsky.social
    @meghanor
    Apr 19, 2022
    Replying to @meghanor
    I recommend listening to @gregggonsalves on @BrianLehrer today for his edifying reminder that the now normative view that each of us should assess "personal risk" is in fact a very radical version of "public health": wnyc.org/story/pandemic… 2/
    wnyc.org
    The Pandemic Isn't Over | WNYC
    Epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves argues against the view that COVID precautions should be left to individual choice at this point.
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    Meghan O'Rourke meghanor.bsky.social
    @meghanor
    Apr 19, 2022
    Replying to @meghanor
    Instead of having a rational discussion of layered strategies like masking, we are in a maddening cycle of suggesting that strategies to prevent COVID *means* harming kids or failing to get colonoscopies. /3
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    Meghan O'Rourke meghanor.bsky.social
    @meghanor
    Apr 19, 2022
    Replying to @meghanor
    This indifference is really grating on me today, since I just spent 8 hours at the doctor getting tests and treatment for my own infection-associated condition. I really wish I COULD wish away my condition the way some are wishing away COVID. How nice that would be. /5
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    Meghan O'Rourke meghanor.bsky.social
    @meghanor
    Apr 19, 2022
    Replying to @meghanor
    The burden now for all is to imagine the vulnerability of others, which may be our own someday. As Susan Sontag reminded us, we all get a passport to the kingdom of the sick at one point or another. /end
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    Meghan O'Rourke meghanor.bsky.social
    @meghanor
    Apr 19, 2022
    Replying to @meghanor
    Many complexities to weigh right now. But the solution is not for public health officials to espouse the privatization of health, in which the sick are written off as their own problem. A federal judge falsely calling COVID "seasonal" should not lead to no masks on planes. /7
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    Meghan O'Rourke meghanor.bsky.social
    @meghanor
    Apr 19, 2022
    Replying to @meghanor
    But fantasies don't build realities. Looking hard at reality is what leads to new and better realities, and fairer policies. Here's @ASlavitt saying it like it is: #longCOVID is a crisis we are just beginning to see the scope of: x.com/ASlavitt/statu… /6
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    Andy Slavitt 🇺🇦
    @ASlavitt
    Apr 17, 2022
    COVID Update: COVID may not be remembered primarily for the full hospitals, unpredictable variants, mask & vaccine controversies, or even the massive loss of life. It may be thought of primarily as chronic disease affecting 10s of millions. 1/
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    Meghan O'Rourke meghanor.bsky.social
    @meghanor
    Sep 12, 2022
    So, it's becoming increasingly clear to me (11 weeks out from infection) that I may have some form of #longCOVID, and I've decided to be public about it now. One of my main symptoms is the form of brain fog that @edyong vividly describes in his must-read piece. How so? 🧵
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    Ed Yong is not here
    @edyong209
    Sep 12, 2022
    🚨I wrote about “brain fog”—one of the most common & disabling symptoms of long COVID (and many other pre-pandemic conditions), and one of the most misunderstood. Here’s what brain fog actually is, and what it’s like to live with it. 1/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…