We call upon the editors of WIRED Magazine to retract their recent article, "The Painful Truth About Long Covid," by Alan Levinovitz. 

Below is a letter already sent to the WIRED editors. While our individual stories differ in the details, we join the author of this letter in the call for responsible journalism and the retraction of this damaging article. 

We know the time has passed for you to have carefully considered the fairness and impact of this article before publishing it. A degree of permanent damage has been done. But we ask you to retract it and do better.  We hope that in the future you will publish articles to make Long Covid/ME/CFS better understood, better known, better funded, and better appreciated.  We hope you make every effort to do your part.

Dear Editors,

I am deeply disappointed by Professor Levinovitz’s article on Long Covid and ask that Wired magazine retract it and publish an article on this illness that accurately describes the current science on it as well as the struggle patients and caregivers have with the majority of medical providers, and with navigating the endless roadblocks and misunderstandings we face multiple times a day.

If you or Professor Levinovitz have any questions about the science, the number of Americans impacted, and the weight of that impact, please let me know.  I am unfortunately too familiar with this illness. My 12-year-old daughter has been ill with this disease since March of 2025.  She has lost hope that she may ever get better, and wonders why medicines work for some people but not her.   She can walk to the bathroom but cannot do more than that.  She thinks her dreams for a future in which she leaves a positive mark on the world may be gone.

My 14-year-old son has been ill with this disease since September, 2025.  Today I saw school children outside doing Field Day as an end of the school year celebration. My son cannot walk, sit up independently, or stand.  I carry him to the toilet once a day to defecate.  He has urinals at his bedside. He has difficulty reading more than 5 words because of brain fog.  He would love to be out with his friends for Field Day.  I did not tell him what he is missing.

I retired from my medical practice of nearly 20 years as an Emergency Physician at the beginning of March to take care of my kids.  They both live very narrow lives from their beds.  Schooling is on hold.  Friendships lost.

We are not only fighting to get treatments for them.  We are also fighting *simply to have their doctors and therapists understand this illness*.  To believe it is real.  To offer more than only mental health support and physical therapy.  Would these *ever* be recommended as first-line treatments to children with cancer or cystic fibrosis?  They would not.

And yet, that is the repeated recommendation we receive from physicians and therapists who by now should know better.  And which Professor Levinovitz’s article can only make worse.

We recently found, after a great deal of arm wrestling to convince providers to send these labs, that my son has abnormally low natural killer cells and an abnormal immune response to multiple pneumococcal serovars. We suspect that this is a critical piece in the understanding of his Long Covid subtype  
Now, please, would the good Professor tell me if he has ever, ever seen brain training normalize the number and function of natural killer cells in his clinical practice?  

I want to be sure that if there are *any* doubts on the part of the editors and Professor Levinovitz around Long Covid and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis because of questions about the veracity of the illness, then I assure you I can provide reliable articles and links that should change your minds.  

I also ask the Professor why, in the name of responsible journalism, he did not include interviews with the numerous people who have tried brain training only to have it fail and be very taxing on their limited resources?

Millions of Americans are ill with this disease.  It is crippling children.  We have strong advocacy and public awareness of many illnesses, but not enough, yet, for this one.  That needs to change, and I strongly urge Wired to be a part of that change.  You have a unique position and responsibility.  I will help however I can.  But my message does not carry the same weight or influence.

I know the time has passed for you to have carefully considered the fairness and impact of this article before publishing it. A degree of permanent damage has been done. But I ask you again to retract it, and do better.  I hope that in the future you will publish articles to make Long Covid/ME/CFS better understood, better known, better funded, better appreciated.  I hope you make every effort to do your part.

Thank you,

M. R., MD