The Sick Times

08/08/2025

The posthumous album of young singer Kara Jane was released to mark . Despite a life of immense pain and restriction, Kara Jane left a legacy of beautiful music that has moved and inspired many thousands of people around the world while raising money for research.

This month, on August 8, the posthumous album of a young singer was released to mark Severe ME Awareness Day. Kara Jane, from Derbyshire in the U.K., had myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) for most of her life and died in January 2023 at just 32 years old. Despite a life of immense pain and restriction,...

07/08/2025

🧸 A drug for celiac disease was found safe and effective in treating a post-COVID syndrome in children

💊 Researchers found that SARS-CoV-2 and influenza can awaken metastatic breast cancer cells in lungs

🏡 An at-home clinical trial program

This week's research:

A drug originally developed for celiac disease was found to be safe and effective in treating a post-COVID syndrome in children, according to a new paper published in Science Translational Medicine.

06/08/2025

Three clinical trials are testing JAK inhibitors, which are approved for some autoimmune diseases. Researchers hypothesize that Long COVID could be partly caused by immune dysregulation and that these drugs may help some people calm the inflammation that drives symptoms.

Three separate trials are testing the immunomodulator drugs abrocitinib (Cibinqo), baricitinib (Olumiant), and upadacitinib (Rinvoq). All are JAK inhibitors, which target specific inflammation pathways.

05/08/2025

After a slow start, the U.S.’s summer COVID-19 wave is now clearly taking off, with cases increasing nationwide according to all metrics.

Read this week's full COVID-19 trends report

After a slow start, the U.S.’s summer COVID-19 wave is now clearly taking off, with cases increasing nationwide according to all metrics. While the South and West Coast continue to report the highest disease levels, increases are happening across the country.

03/08/2025

Thanks to your donations, we hit BOTH of our summer fundraising goals!

And thanks to the incredible support of The Disability Visibility Project, your donations will be doubled!

You've helped us carry our vital journalism forward into 2026!

02/08/2025

Here’s what’s happening this week in research:

🩸 Two studies on potential biomarkers for myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) were published this month. A Nature Medicine multi-omics study assessed numerous samples and clinical data from 153 people with ME over four years, compared them with 96 controls, and trained an artificial intelligence model, BioMapAI, that predicted the disease with high accuracy. Analyses of immune cells and microbiome data matched symptom severity. “This is real biological dysregulation,” one of the authors said in a press release. A second study in the Journal of Translational Medicine found that a molecule called SMPDL3B may also serve as a potential biomarker for ME.

🧠 Stellate ganglion blocks, a procedure where an anesthetic is injected into nerves in the neck, may help reduce the severity of some symptoms of Long COVID and ME, according to two small studies. One retrospective survey study published in Cureus assessed 52 participants who underwent the treatment. They found that it helped with headaches, dizziness, and “brain fog,” but that the duration of symptom relief varied significantly. A second, small pilot study of ten participants with Long COVID and ME found the treatment helped reduce post-exertional malaise and orthostatic intolerance. Still, as both studies were small and had many limitations, the authors of each study stated the need for further and larger studies on the procedure for Long COVID and ME.

🫁 An observational study is recruiting 40 people in Boston, Massachusetts to test for defects of air and blood flow in the lungs in people with Long COVID. The study will include questionnaires, pulmonary function tests, a special kind of x-ray called a low-dose CT scan, and a six-minute walk test. Contact: Bipin Malla, [email protected]

01/08/2025

If you have a complex chronic illness, you're probably familiar with the experience of a doctor telling you that your test results are normal, while your body feels like it's full of noodles and static electricity. As a linguist, M Corvi is looking for words to measure sickness.

So what words can I, a linguist and a patient with sensations perceivable only to me, use to fully capture these mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) sensations to my providers? And, more generally, how can we measure our unsettling internal reali...

31/07/2025

Today's the last day of our summer fundraiser, and we're SO CLOSE to our goal! We only need to raise $2,000 and sign-up 4 more monthly donors to hit it!

Can you help us keep our vital journalism going—and snag yourself a Sick Times dad hat too? https://the-sick-times.fundjournalism.org/donate/

31/07/2025

Two clinical trials are currently underway in the U.S. to evaluate the effect of rapamycin on Long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) — one at Mount Sinai’s Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illness and another at Simmaron Research. People who have tried the drug off-label in low doses report a range of experiences, including sustained responses, miraculous improvements followed by relapse, and side effects that lead them to discontinue the drug.

Two clinical trials are currently underway in the U.S. to evaluate the effect of rapamycin on Long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) — one at Mount Sinai’s Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illness and another at Simmaron Research.

29/07/2025

COVID-19 cases continue to increase across the U.S., with summer outbreaks spreading from the South and West Coast to other regions.

This week's COVID-19 trends: https://bit.ly/45avnyC

28/07/2025

With THREE days left in our summer fundraiser, we’re only $3,000 (!) and 12 (!!!) monthly donors away from our goal!

Will you help us keep our vital journalism going into 2026? https://the-sick-times.fundjournalism.org/donate/

27/07/2025

Thank you to everyone who attended our virtual town hall last week! We appreciated your questions and feedback!

If you weren't able to make it, you can watch Miles and Betsy share updates about our editorial plans and finances on YouTube.

On July 24, The Sick Times hosted a virtual town hall. Co-founders and editors Miles Griffis and Betsy Ladyzhets shared updates about our editorial plans and finances and took questions from readers. The event is part of our summer 2025 fundraiser, which will continue through next week. Thank you to...