Justin Bieber has Lyme disease and no one knows whether we should feel sorry for him

Justin Bieber posted on Instagram last night to tell the world that all this time people were making jokes about him supposedly being on meth, he's actually had Lyme disease.

It should have been a classic "and I oop" moment for those who had gleefully mocked Bieber for his appearance, which is really never OK. A similar situation happened with Bieber's ex Selena Gomez, who revealed that she had lupus disease in 2015 after it had been reported that she had checked into rehab, when in fact she was just receiving treatment for the condition.

But instead of sympathy people pivoted to mocking Beiber all over again. Now everyone is divided on whether that's OK and... it's complicated.

For starters, his announcement included a teaser for an upcoming YouTube documentary, where he apparently explains things further. It also comes less than a week after he dropped his latest single "Yummy", which has been widely derided as a cynical ploy to go TikTok viral.

As a result, people aren't feeling particularly sorry for Bieber.

Many are also making the point Bieber and his fans seemed to have little sympathy for Gomez after her lupus diagnosis.

The whole issue is compounded by the fact that Lyme disease is often confused with "chronic Lyme disease", which is a name some give to a collection of sympoms including fatigue and muscle pain. However, there is no scientific evidence to show that this condition bears any relation to genuine Lyme disease, which is caused caused by a bacterium known as borrelia burgdorferi.

As a result of this confusion, people have in the past failed to take Lyme disease seriously.

Unfortunately, Bieber's wife Hayley (née Baldwin), seemed to confuse the issue further in a tweet in which she referred to people who have "suffered with [Lyme disease] for years".

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Lyme disease is treated with a two-to-four week course of antibiotics. While symptoms may linger, it is rare for this to continue beyond six months.

All in all, there seems to be a lot of confusion around the disease itself, as well as complicated feelings of resentment among Selena Gomez stans, and a sense that he may be exploiting his condition for clout.

So should we feel sorry for him? It's never a good look to make fun of a serious medical condition but to be fair, Bieber really hasn't done himself any favours.

MORE:Justin Bieber fell off a unicycle and the pictures just won't stop giving

MORE: Disgraced Instagram influencer accused of returning to social media under a different identity