Cardiology gets covid following a ski trip in the French Alps. He was able to take a 3 month leave of absence from work, had his team handle his research responsibilities, unplugged from his email and other distractions, and even had the privilege to be able to have 3 hours every day with no interruptions, in addition to getting a good night’s sleep and basically taking it easy.
The article about this on WHYY spins all this as evidence that “mindfulness” or “deep meditation” and “thinking positive” is a cure or a preventative for Long Covid.
The doctor admits in the article that he realizes not everyone can rest! But instead of taking this opportunity to advocate that EVERYONE be allowed to REST to recover from Covid and Long Covid… regardless of whether it “cures” them – he instead used his privilege to make claims to hype meditation and positive thinking as a cure.
He may have just recovered from taking it easy, without the meditation. And it may have just been regression to the mean, where he would’ve recovered similarly no matter the situation. But the takeaway that many covid minimizing taskmasters will come away with is that just the “mindfulness” meditation is the cure. That people should just get back to work still with symptoms and meditate their way through pushing themselves harder.
WHYY – A cardiologist wanted to prevent long COVID. He turned to meditation. A recent review of research suggests meditation may be effective for some in treating long COVID and other post-viral conditions. By Grant Hill – May 19, 2023
“I was sleeping 14 hours a day and feeling breathless for the rest of the time of the day and feeling extremely exhausted. And I thought, ‘Gosh! If this is how long COVID feels, if this is how I’m going to feel in 12 weeks, in 24 weeks, I’m in trouble and I can’t work.’” Once Lim returned to London, he decided to take a radical step. “I recognized that what I needed to do was to turn off my mobile phone, just have an auto reply, and I said to my secretaries, ‘just no response from me.’” Lim said. He put his practice on hold and dedicated the foreseeable future to his recovery.