Long Havana

While I’m linking together things, this bit of news caught my attention: No evidence of brain damage caused by severe Covid-19.

And so much of the “long covid” thing has zero clinical basis as the effects of a viral illness. Not surprisingly there’s a strong overlap with the symptoms of anxiety disorders.

This is reminiscent of Havana Syndrome, which is far more likely to be a mass psychogenic illness than some futuristic microwave weapon.

These bouts of psychogenic illnesses — long covid, Havana Syndrome, etc., are the symptoms of our age of ubiquitous social isolation, mass hypochondria, and self-diagnosed “mental-health problems”.

To be clear, I don’t doubt that the people involved here are suffering very real pain. But I’m guessing that future historians will judge all of this about the same way look at other historical mass psychogenic illnesses.