Pietrzak-Franger, Monika – Long Covid and ME/CFS: When the Doctor Does not Believe You
(transl.: “Stigmatisiert und ignoriert: Die stille Krise hinter dem #Frauenticket”) Under the hashtag #Frauenticket, thousands of women are sharing their experiences of not being taken seriously by their doctors. In a guest article for research magazine “Rudolphina” (University of Vienna), Monika Pietrzak-Franger explains why patients suffering from Long Covid and other chronic illnesses often face multiple forms of stigma… Read more

Pietrzak-Franger, Monika – Long Covid as a Collective Experience: A Photo Essay. Re:visit: Humanities & Medicine in Dialogue 3.1 (2024) – open-access journal
Although diseases manifest themselves in individual bodies, they usually have multiple, and often systemic, causes. They do not only affect one’s immediate social environment, but whole cities and nations. The pandemic has demonstrated the extent of these interdependencies: a butterfly effect which makes clear that a virus, animals, humans and the environment cannot be thought of separately… Read more

Pietrzak-Franger, Monika – “Long Covid Participatory Research: Showing the Invisible,” The Future of Medical/Health Humanities (Workshop, Rice University Medical Humanities Research Institute, Paris, France)

Pietrzak-Franger, Monika – Long Covid: Digital Health Technologies, Patient Activism, and Illness Narratives. Hard Times Magazine 107 (2023), pp. 105-120
There are over sixty-five million people worldwide suffering from Long Covid. The condition, though largely accepted asa diagnosis, does not yet have a legitimate status. Patient organizations have used analogue means and digital technologies to raise awareness and draw attention to Long Covid’s long-term effects. In this article, Monika Pietrzak-Franger (University of Vienna) takes a quick glance at the ways in which digital health technologies may be used in the fight for recognition and legitimation, knowledge creation, and community building. She pays particular attention to the downsides of online illness narratives and iconographies that have appeared in this context.

• Gamillscheg et al. – Barriers and facilitators of healthcare access for long COVID-19 patients in a universal healthcare system: qualitative evidence from Austria
  Peter Gamillscheg, Agata Łaszewska, Stefanie Kirchner, Kathryn Hoffmann, Judit Simon, Susanne Mayer Full link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39443935/ Abstract Background: Long COVID-19 challenges health and social systems globally. International research finds major inequalities in prevalence and healthcare utilization as patients describe difficulties with accessing health care. In order to improve long-term outcomes it is vital to understand any underlying access barriers, for which relevant READ MORE
• Gamillscheg et al. – Understanding the associations between information sources, sociodemographics, and views on public health measures: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria
  Peter Gamillscheg, Susanne Mayer, Monika Pietrzak-Franger, Carina Hilmar, Alina Lange, Judit Simon, Agata Łaszewska Full link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38867264/ Abstract Background: Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a key priority for governments globally to ensure agreement with, and subsequently adherence to, imposed public health measures, specifically non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). Prior research in this regard highlighted the role of COVID-19 information sources as well as READ MORE
• Pietrzak-Franger, Monika et al. – Narrating the Pandemic: COVID-19, China and blame allocation strategies in Western European popular press
  Date: March 10, 2022 Abstract: Blaming the emergence and spread of COVID-19 on various social groups has been a central theme in narrating the pandemic. In such narratives, China has often emerged as a convenient scapegoat. However, systematic research into transcultural and culture-specific strategies of stigmatisation in the context of the corona pandemic is still scarce.
• Pietrzak-Franger, Monika – A ‘Visiodemic’ : COVID-19, Contagion Media, and the British Press
  Date: Winter 2021 Abstract: “No one is immune against images” (Franzen 2020) – their power stems from their immediacy, their lingering claim for truth, authenticity, and objectivity, from their role as a witness; but also from their ability to capture attention, to convey large amounts of information in a short time, and from their high emotional appeal (Cassinger and Thelander 2015; cf. Flynn 2019).