Tag: Long Covid
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Some Things I Read This Week–Scathing “Effort Preference” Analysis; Kids with Long Covid; National Academies’ Long Covid Definition
An in-depth pushback on “effort preference” When the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s long-delayed “deep phenotyping” study of a handful of ME/CFS patients was released earlier this year, the focus on a weird construct called “effort preference” sucked up all the attention–in part because the paper placed it front and center, in part because no…
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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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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
*This is a crowdfunding month at Berkeley for Trial By Error. If you appreciate my work, here’s a link to donate (tax-deductible to US taxpayers) directly to the university: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/42302 ********** Marco Wetzel, a digital sales expert, is one of five German Long Covid patients who banded together earlier this year with an ambitious plan…
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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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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.…
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A New Study from Exeter on “Brain Training” for Treatment of Post-Covid Cognitive Problems
The University of Exeter is now recruiting for a study of “brain training” as a treatment for prolonged cognitive dysfunction after a bout of Covid-19. I found out about this via a post on X. The post highlighted a message that had been sent to an unidentified patient from their medical providers: “Are you experiencing…
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Another Letter Seeking Correction of Bogus “Clinically Effective” Claims from REGAIN Trial
Last month, I sent a letter to Dr Abbasi, the editor-in-chief of The BMJ, about an egregious and arguably fraudulent claim in the REGAIN trial—an investigation of a Long Covid physical and mental health rehabilitation program. Several other experts co-signed the letter. The journal asked us to send in a rapid response. We declined, on…
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My Letter to Scientific Reports about New Study of Physical Activity and Long Covid
The other day I posted a blog about yet another problematic Long Covid study published by a major journal. The study concluded that physical activity (PA) can “reduce” symptoms in young women with prolonged medical complaints after Covid-19, or what the authors call post-COVID condition (PCC). The problem: the study design is capable of documenting…
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Yet Another Long Covid Study with Bogus Claims Published by a Prestige Journal
I’ve recently spent some time lambasting a Long Covid study in The BMJ that claimed a rehab program addressing both physical and mental health was “clinically effective”—even though the primary outcome results fell below the recommended level for what would be considered “minimal clinically important difference” on the measure in question. Now another high impact…