When a Sore Throat Attacks the Brain
RECOMMENDED READING | AUGUST 2026
New York Magazine | The Cut
By Jessica Slice | August 13, 2026
For families who have lived through PANS, Jessica Slice's story may feel painfully familiar.
In When a Sore Throat Attacks the Brain, Slice describes how her eight-year-old daughter, Rose, developed a seemingly ordinary sore throat and then, within days, experienced a devastating change in her ability to function.
But this is more than one family's story.
Published by New York Magazine's The Cut, the piece takes a thoughtful look at the larger story of PANS: the history and controversy surrounding the diagnosis, the research that has emerged over the years, the physicians and scientists working to better understand the condition, and the barriers families continue to face when seeking diagnosis and treatment.
Why we recommend it
It captures the suddenness of PANS.
Slice describes the kind of abrupt, bewildering change that so many families struggle to explain to friends, teachers, physicians, and even themselves. A child can appear healthy and then seem profoundly different in a matter of days.
It doesn't shy away from the medical controversy.
The article explores the skepticism that has followed PANS and PANDAS for decades while also examining the growing body of research supporting an immune-mediated process in at least some affected children. That balance makes the piece particularly useful for readers encountering PANS for the first time.
It examines what happens when recognition doesn't translate into access to care.
Rose's family encounters many of the obstacles familiar to the PANS community: difficulty finding knowledgeable providers, disagreement over treatment, significant out-of-pocket costs, and challenges obtaining therapies such as IVIG.
It shows the extraordinary burden placed on families.
Perhaps most powerfully, the story illustrates what it means for parents to become researchers, care coordinators and advocates while simultaneously trying to care for a very sick child.
Why this story matters
PANS has spent years largely outside mainstream public conversation. A deeply reported story in a national publication gives people who have never witnessed this illness an opportunity to understand both its severity and the complicated reality families face when trying to find care.
For parents already living it, there is also something meaningful about seeing an experience that can feel almost impossible to explain described for a much larger audience.
We recommend this piece not because it answers every question surrounding PANS, but because it asks many of the right ones, and gives readers a window into why continued research, physician education and access to appropriate care matter.
Read the full article:When a Sore Throat Attacks the Brain by Jessica Slice, published August 13, 2026, in New York Magazine's The Cut.