Ukrainian-American. Theater/film/music/book lover. Former arts finance girlie. Left-ish Libertarian-ish. Life on pause due to disabling #LongCOVID.
Joined October 2008
- Tweets 24,482
- Following 996
- Followers 3,695
- Likes 50,545
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Pinned Tweet
Mar 23
Ok, real talk: I am not a doctor so I cannot advise you about risky compounds that haven’t had many in-human trials like experimental peptides. I’m happy to experiment on myself and report outcomes of my particular n=1 situation so as to share ideas for people to explore for care
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Olenka Sayko retweeted
for the people who are loving Olivia's new album I recommend these gems as essential listens
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Olenka Sayko retweeted
Jun 10
It’s incredible. If someone is not aware of *big* money, very very high profile trials dedicated to the very thing they’re claiming “can’t be talked about”, that person should not write about the topic.
And incompetence is the better explanation of such unbelievable oversight.
Jun 7
How embarrassing for @Wired. This is like saying “if only we were allowed to talk about AI” in 2026.
Not “allowed to talk” fails simple Google search. See what NIH has on clinic trail with its Long Covid billion while *ignoring* widely prescribed drugs. trials.recovercovid.org/desi…
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Jun 10
I love that there are people out here who are scared to take antihistamines meanwhile my MCAS doc is like “eh, you can take up to 6 Allegra and 120mg of famotidine a day” during a flare if you’re maxed out on your sedating antihistamines (ketotifen, Cyproheptadine, Benadryl).
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Jun 10
We have as a society decided to sneer at expertise and granular knowledge and it bleeds through to the journalism our society produces. We have an ill-equipped scientifically illiterate religious studies professor with an agenda opining on medical research and publishing books.
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Jun 10
He keeps getting book deals; his editors get the clicks that their publications so desperately need; and patients are going to be materially worse off because everyone around them reads this garbage. And the wicked cycle churns on apace. The only losers are patients.
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Jun 10
Alan Levinovitz’s lack of knowledge on the science of anything is glaringly obvious given his work product and Twitter. But the longer he goes on, the more obvious it becomes that his @WIRED editors are not equipped to facilitate rigorous reporting on cutting edge medical science
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Jun 10
“It is so important to me to engage with criticism of my work. So much so that I have either ignored SOME OF MY OWN SOURCES who have come forward and asserted that my argument has glaring scientific holes OR that their comments have been misrepresented OR I have insulted others…
ALT Tweet from Alan Levinovitz: “It was important for me to engage with critics of my WIRED piece about long Covid. I think journalists owe the public and their critics this kind of engagement, especially on a topic as fraught as this one. But at this point I think l've said everything that's useful. l'Il be stepping away from this specific topic on social media for the next few months. If you are interested in how it has all played out, I encourage you to go through my timeline. You'll see my posts, which include links to longer critiques of my piece, as well as my replies to people on here. They also include threads laying out more extended discussions of topics that couldn't get adequate treatment in the piece.”
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Jun 10
“…Which generates EVEN MORE criticism. Which I also ignore. Because I cannot analyze or grasp the implications of a scientific study to save my life. The best I can do is go to people I deem to be experts (not gonna tell you their names tho!) and ask them ‘Is this anything?’…”
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Jun 10
“…Buy my book where I tell you everyone is a snowflake! BUT I do it under the guise of ‘intellectual investigation’ so you don’t feel like an asshole punching down on sick people when you eventually use my work to make the sick people you encounter miserable.” - Alan
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Olenka Sayko retweeted
able-bodied persons had better wake up to the (inevitable) fact that if they/we live long enough, we will be disabled; & if we live longer, we will be severely disabled. this MAGA/GOP war against "disabled" persons is actually terrifying.
you may think that you are 100% healthy but, face it, you are one bloodwork or CAT-scan away from un-healthy. one hour in your life can alter it forever.
have some sympathy for the disabled & what this administration is threatening before it is too late.
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Olenka Sayko retweeted
Jun 9
Hey everyone.
Here's Alan providing people with the link to the petition to recall his article.
DO NOT leave him hanging.
Sign it.
Link here to the petition to have my piece about long Covid retracted. It includes a very strong criticism of the piece by a physician. I encourage people to read it, alongside the piece, to judge for themselves the strength of the objections.
change.org/p/wired-magazine-…
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Olenka Sayko retweeted
That's astonishing @wired — and @wired's defining silence through all of this means they have no good defense, or trust me they would've published it by now. It's unethical to sit back and watch this without a response.
5 people so far at my count claim they were misrepresented in the story
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Olenka Sayko retweeted
Jun 9
Here is another great piece I'd like to amplify.
"when the community pushes back, understand what it is pushing back against, because the article blurs the line on purpose, and the blur is where the argument lives. The community does not reject CBT. I have taught CBT. What it rejects is CBT and graded exercise sold as a cure, premised on the idea that the illness persists because the patient holds a false belief about being sick, and that correcting the belief and pushing through the symptoms will restore function. That is a different claim, and it is not rejected out of stubbornness. It is rejected because of what happens when it is followed."
darthfoo.substack.com/p/the-…
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Olenka Sayko retweeted
Jun 9
My post about the @WIRED story by @AlanLevinovitz clocked in at 3,000 words--not quite half the length of the story itself. Sorry!!--I tried to keep it shorter, but there was just so much to say. And more likely to come. virology.ws/2026/06/09/trial…
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Jun 9
Sometimes I think my mast cells are relatively stable but then I do something as milquetoast as put oil in my hair and forget to wash my hands after handling said oil and then some of the oil gets in my mouth and days later my immune system is still hypersensitive and reactive.
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Jun 9
Like this is a hair oil I have used many many many times before though I usually wash my hands after handling it. I’ve never reacted to it before! But the second some of it gets in my mouth? Game over.
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Jun 8
And what if I said he’s right?
ALT Photo of actor Jacob Elordi quoted as saying, “I wish people could experience shame a little heavier” when asked what he wished would come back in style
Jun 8
If I consistently got on this app and showed everyone my scientific literacy was this terrible, I would simply slither away and never speak again but I fear we aren’t that lucky.
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Jun 8
RT @visceralfeel: i think it’s important now more than ever to circulate this story once again. it’s a tough read but we can’t let a trophy…
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