I came across this anecdote from Jennifer Senior, a staff writer at the Atlantic who is suffering from long COVID (boldface mine):

Here’s an anecdote my healthier, more circumspect self would have once filtered, rather than coyly starting a game of guess-who, but whyever not, I’ll share it: A few months ago [late 2022], I told a higher-up at The New York Times—we’re talking very high altitude—that I’d been struggling with long COVID. His reply: “Is that the excuse everyone at The Atlantic uses when they’re unproductive?” It was a staggeringly insensitive thing to say. Even now, I find myself staring into space, wondering if that moment was real. (It was.)

The brutal reality is many people in positions of influence do not believe that long COVID is real and people who have it just need to ‘suck it up.’ My guess is there are a few politicos in the Biden administration who feel the same way. It’s not just the cruelty towards those with long COVID that’s a problem–though that’s bad enough–it’s, if you don’t believe in long COVID, then there’s no reason to attempt to prevent COVID infections.

We are governed–and I don’t just mean elected officials–by stupid, horrible people.