KarlPK says: Very good comments below from Steve White. I think it is troubling that we have moved into the realm where so many issues are viewed through the prism of racism. The issues are very complex, and any discussion that zeroes in on a handful of emotionally inflammatory “causes” risks being superficial at best, misleading at worst. Moreover, many of the complaints are purely anecdotal. First, we hear that people have “the heightened burdens to convince providers that their conditions are real.” That is a purely perceptual conclusion, not a scientific one. In the spirit of journalistic speculation, perhaps individuals who go to doctors simply can’t be helped right now, given the incomplete and fragmentary state of knowledge about “long covid,” and therefore misinterpret that as callous indifference. It’s not surprising then that we have a White person quoted who feels the same way. Oh, well — onto the next issue!