Category: Syndicated
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BBC Takes on Lightning Process and Highlights Perspectives of the So-Called “Anti-Recovery Activists”
For years, I have criticized the research purporting to prove that the Lightning Process, a three-day mind-body workshop that has claimed to be effective in curing ME/CFS and a host of other chronic illnesses. The largest study of the LP, conducted by the methodologically and ethical challenged Esther Crawley, a professor and pediatrician at the…
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Anil van der Zee’s New Video on Living with Severe ME
Anil van der Zee and I first connected in 2016, when he invited me to Amsterdam to give a talk at a screening of Ryan Prior’s documentary about his own illness, Forgotten Plague. Anil was already home-bound from ME; he organized that event from his bed. We didn’t meet during that visit–he wasn’t able to…
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Time’s Health100 List Includes Leaders in Long Covid and ME/CFS
Last week, Time magazine unveiled a list called the TIME100 Health—a selection of “leaders from across industries—scientists, doctors, advocates, educators, and policy-makers, among others—dedicated to creating tangible, credible change for a healthier population.” Time also wrote this: “Together, they are a reminder that many things are going right, and their work is enough to inspire…
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A Conversation with the Co-Founders of The Sick Times
Journalists Betsy Ladyzhets and Miles Griffis are the co-founders of The Sick Times, a non-profit that covers Long Covid and other chronic infection-related illnesses. They launched the site last November and have built up a solid following for their reporting, updates, and weekly newsletter. They recently received a $250,000 grant that will allow them to…
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Interview with Co-Organizator of Next Week’s Unite To Fight Long Covid Conference
Marco Wetzel, a digital sales expert, is one of five German Long Covid patients who banded together earlier this year with an ambitious plan to produce a major online conference called UniteToFight. Although they faced some initial skepticism, they quickly rounded up some high-profile names as speakers for the free event, including Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist…
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Berkeley’s May Crowdfunding Campaign Begins…
Berkeley’s latest crowdfunding campaign for Trial By Error begins today. It is hard for me to believe that I have been working on this project—debunking awful research into what was then called “chronic fatigue syndrome,” and related issues–for ten years. My efforts began in the summer of 2014, when I traveled to the UK to…
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Australian GP Group Recommends “Incremental Physical Activity” for “CFS/ME” Patients
What’s going on with Aussie members of the graded exercise therapy cult? (Oops!—I meant the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, a trade and professional organization. Sorry!) In 2019, I wrote about the organization’s guidance for “CFS/ME.” This guidance, published in 2015, was part of the group’s Handbook of Non-Drug Interventions (HANDI). This month, HANDI…
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Guardian Columnist George Monbiot Discusses His Scathing Rebuke of the Biopsychosocial Brigades–Text Version
Last week, I spoke with George Monbiot, a British investigative reporter and political activist, who has been a columnist for The Guardian for almost 30 years. He and I have been in occasional communication in recent years over an issue of mutual interest—the scandalous mistreatment of patients suffering from the devastating illness (or cluster of illnesses) known as…
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Guardian Columnist George Monbiot Discusses His Scathing Critique of the “Biopsychosocial” Approach to ME/CFS and Long Covid
Earlier today I spoke with George Monbiot, a British investigative reporter and political activist, who has been a columnist for The Guardian for almost 30 years. He and I have been in occasional communication in recent years over an issue of mutual interest—the scandalous mistreatment of patients suffering from the devastating illness (or cluster of…
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Senator Bernie Sanders’ $10 Billion Long Covid “Moonshot” Proposal
On April 9th, Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who votes with the Democrats, unveiled an ambitious $10 billion “moonshot” proposal to fund research into Long Covid. The proposal has raised hopes among patients with the disease or cluster of diseases now being called ME/CFS—as well as concerns that those who came down…
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An Interview with the Authors of the European ME Alliance Survey of 11,000+ Patients
Earlier this month, the European Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Alliance (EMEA) released a 235-page report on a survey of ME/CFS patients in Europe titled “Same disease, different approaches and experiences.” The authors are Arild Angelsen, a board member of the Norwegian ME Association and a professor at the School of Economics and Business at Norwegian University of…
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REGAIN Team Responds to Criticism with Unconvincing Defenses of Methodological Missteps
In recent weeks, I have been urging The BMJ to correct a flawed University of Warwick trial of an online mental and physical health rehab program for people with prolonged symptoms at least three months after hospitalization for Covid-19. The primary outcome was health-related quality of life, assessed with a measure called the PROPr score.…