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73. How to Spot Medical Misinformation: Guest Interview on The Sick Times
Description
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Evaluating Long COVID Research, Treatments, and Medical Misinformation.
Today's episode is a cross-post from The Sick Times' podcast "Still Here."
In my conversation with hosts and journalists Miles Griffis and Betsy Ladyzhets, we discuss ways people with long COVID can better judge research, treatments, and online claims without getting overwhelmed by hype or pseudoscience. I also explain my approach to reading studies, thinking through off-label treatments, and spotting red flags in medical content.
Timestamps
00:00 - Opening and why this episode matters for the long COVID community
02:35 - Dr. Khan introduces herself and her path from ICU physician to long COVID patient
04:41 - Why long COVID care still falls short and medicine has not caught up
08:28 - How off-label treatments work and how patients can think about them
12:28 - Dr. Khan’s process for reading a clinical trial or research paper
17:12 - How to bring research to a clinician without getting dismissed
20:48 - Choosing between sequential treatment and trying multiple interventions at once
24:20 - Triaging the most painful problem first in a complex illness
26:31 - Why long COVID care feels overwhelming and why prioritization helps
27:01 - Spotting pseudoscience and misinformation in long COVID content
30:06 - Red flags: certainty, conspiracies, “root cause” language, and brain retraining claims
33:22 - Staying hopeful and remembering long COVID patients are not alone
34:35 - Research update: skeletal muscle abnormalities in long COVID and ME
35:15 - Research update: large genetic study links fibromyalgia to the central nervous system
36:01 - Research update: racial disparities in long COVID diagnosis
36:48 - Credits and closing