The #longcovid revolution: A reflexive thematic analysis.

Research has identified long COVID as the first virtual patient-made condition (Callard and Perego, 2021). It originated from Twitter users sharing their experiences using the hashtag #longcovid. Over the first two years of the pandemic, long COVID affected as many as 17 million people in Europe (WHO, 2023). This study focuses on the initial #longcovid tweets in 2020 (as previous studies have focused on 2021-2022), from the first tweet in May to August 2020, when the World Health Organization recognised the condition. We collected over 31,000 tweets containing #longcovid from Twitter. Using Braun and Clarke's reflexive thematic analysis (2020), informed by the first author's experience of long COVID and drawing on Ian Hacking's perspective on social constructionism (1999), we identified different grades of social constructionism in the tweets. The themes we generated reflected that long COVID was a multi-system, cyclical condition initially stigmatised and misunderstood. These findings align with existing literature (Ladds et al., 2020; Rushforth et al., 2021). We add to the existing literature by suggesting that Twitter users raised awareness of long COVID by providing social consensus on their long COVID symptoms. Despite the challenge for traditional evidence-based medicine to capture the varied and intermittent symptoms, the social consensus highlighted that these variations were a consistent and collective experience. This social consensus fostered a collective social movement, overcoming stigma through supportive tweets and highlighting their healthcare needs using #researchrehabrecognition. The #longcovid movement's work was revolutionary, as it showed a revolutionary grade of social constructionism, because it brought about real-world change for long COVID sufferers in terms of recognition and the potential for healthcare provisions. Twitter users' accounts expose the limitations of traditional evidence-based medicine in identifying new conditions. Future research on novel conditions should consider various research paradigms, such as Evidence-Based Medicine Plus (Greenhalgh et al., 2022).

Fat shaming under neoliberalism and COVID-19: Examining the UK's Tackling Obesity campaign.

This article explores the dynamics between fat shaming, neoliberalism, ideological constructions of health and the 'obesity epidemic' within the UK, using the UK Government's recent Tackling Obesity campaign in response to Covid-19 as an illustration. We draw attention to how fat shaming as a practice that encourages open disdain for those living with excess weight operates as a moralising tool to regulate and manage those who are viewed as 'bad' citizens. In doing so, we begin by outlining how the ideological underpinnings of 'health' have been transformed under neoliberalism. We then consider the problematic use of fat shaming discourses that are often used as tools to promote 'healthy' lifestyle choices by those who view it as not only an acceptable way of communicating the health risks associated with obesity but also a productive way of motivating people with obesity to lose weight. Drawing on Graham Scambler's theoretical framework regarding shame and blame (2020), we discuss how 'heaping blame on shame' has become a 'wilful political strategy' under neoliberalism, particularly as it relates to individuals with obesity, and how the Tackling Obesity campaign leverages concerns around 'choices' and 'costs' as a means through which to encourage normative models of self-care and self-discipline.

Passing Strategies and Performative Identities: Coping with (In)Visible Chronic Diseases.

In this article I consider the role of passing and performance in the everyday lives of alkaptonuria (AKU) and vitiligo patients. Race, LGBTQ, gender and disability scholars have long used the term passing to describe sub-groups of people within marginal populations who intentionally manipulate their bodies or alter their behaviour in order to claim identities that are not socially assigned to them at birth. In this paper I demonstrate the effectiveness of the passing strategies that patients use in order to mitigate their disease symptoms and render them invisible, thus enabling them to pass as "healthy" or unaffected by their condition. I further consider how patients who choose not to pass utilise resistance strategies in order to generate awareness of their disease and encourage funding for it. I conclude by assessing the effectiveness of these strategies in determining whether or not patients can pass, and the ways in which this is aided or hindered by their social and economic status.