Well, I just read the COVID piece in @TheAtlantic by @dcopaken so you don’t have to.

As soon as I am able to unroll my eyes back to their normal position, I will walk though the piece.

First, I want to sympathize with @dcopaken’s illness. It totally sucks to be sick, and I understand where she is coming from with POTS.

As a pediatric cardiologist, I have seen many, many folks with POTS and similar conditions with symptoms of syncope & presyncope. Very common.

The experience and description of these folks are well described in the piece. Symptoms are often difficult to control. Fortunately, they usually resolve with time.

And I sincerely hope that the author recovers and returns to her usual state of good health.

Now, let’s get get started with the “meta-piece”.

That is, the swirl of fear surrounding COVID & the heart that is an important background to this piece. We would be remiss as readers to be unaware of it.

We have: myocarditis, direct viral myocyte injury, MIS-C (which resembles Kawasaki Disease), dysautonomia, and who-knows-what else?

COVID has been a roller coaster.

And then on top of that we have odd MRI signals, unreliable testing and politicization of illness. Quite a mix!

So, what is the summary of this @TheAtlantic piece?

The author got sick, and has lots of post-illness symptoms with few answers. And maybe she had COVID.

Sorry, but that’s about it.

That, and a ton of fear-mongering and innuendo. That’s it.

Okay, I took a few clips to dissect as well, if you are not already done with this thread…