Trial By Error: Blistering New Monbiot Column on ME/CFS Mistreatment, Neglect
Investigative journalist George Monbiot has published a new column in The Guardian, critically examining the mistreatment and neglect of individuals with ME/CFS, including those with Long COVID. The piece highlights systemic failures by medical and academic establishments, leading to widespread patient abandonment and gaslighting.
Why it matters
This article draws crucial attention to a severely under-recognized and often dismissed chronic illness, advocating for better medical understanding, support, and policy changes for millions of sufferers who face significant challenges in their daily lives.
George Monbiot, the British investigative journalist and longtime contributor to The Guardian , has written a corker of a column about the mistreatment and abuse of people with ME/CFS, including those with Long COVID. This newest piece follows two of Monbiot’s previous Guardian essays—in March, 2024 , and October, 2024 –that were equally blunt about the failures of the medical and academic establishments in this domain.
(I interviewed Monbiot about both of those columns, here and here .)
Here’s the headline of the latest effort: “Abandoned, dismissed and gaslighted: there is no excuse for the way ME sufferers have been betrayed.” And the subhead: “Changes in guidance and science seem to have little impact on millions of devastated lives. It’s a shocking social crisis playing out behind closed doors.”
Sums up the situation pretty well! And here’s the opening:
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