🧵Serious Red Flags for the #CISCO21#LongCovid Study
Researchers please listen to patients concerns & expand your knowledge to the history of #MECFS
You have a chance to stop patient harm
1. No mention of #PEM#PESE in the literature
After repeatedly asking if they screen for #PEM or take this into account - they have not responded in the affirmative.
This is the nub of the issue
75% of #Longhaulers have #PEM
46% are eligible for an #MECFS diagnosis
This means that our bodies cannot process exercise - think sugar diabetes
There is no magic where by giving us exercise because we can't do it means we will magically be able too
They are taking those who are not just Deconditioned through a hospital stay & you need to be exercise impaired to be eligible for the study. This means you will highly likely have PEM & be at risk
The basis of the study is on muscle weakness and wasting - a Deconditioning model. This is out of date and can't be treated with exercise - please look at #MECFS research
The rationale for the study is there is a gap in therapy. There is a gap in therapy because there had been no decent research - you fill the gap by doing this research in pathophysiology & treatment.
We are losing count of the number of rehab exercise studies
Look at #MECFS
The Shuttle Walk test is genuinely dangerous as its aim is to push someone to their limits.
Serious danger to relapse, worsening of symptoms and #PEM
The study visits are exercise based and the treatment is exercise based. This is seriously risky and giving people the false hope they will get better and be tempted to push through to get better.
Potential Risks - this is not true, please do your research. You are not only likely to feel as bit tired for a short time. You can be pushed permanently to a more severe state of illness. This has happened time and again in #MECFS
2033 Completion date?
Here are the details to make a complaint
This is essentially researchers meaning well but not having done their homework It works from a Deconditioning model that there is muscle wastage and if you fix that then you fix the problem.This doesn't work as our anaerobic metabolism doesn't work. That is what you need to fix
There is a chance that if someone has been in hospital and it's Deconditioned but recovered and doesn't have PEM then this may be of benefit. But you are not only doing this and expanding it to all with #LongCovid without a safety net or way to report harm.
1️⃣ What role did Professor Russell Viner play in shaping UK COVID policy on children - and how did it affect recognition of Long Covid in kids?
A timeline 🧵 with sources about our concerns
2️⃣ March 2020: As RCPCH President, Viner told UCL News that “children are at very little risk of infection.”
This line shaped early UK messaging on COVID risk to children.
📎 ucl.ac.uk/news/headlines…
3️⃣ April 2020: Viner led a Lancet rapid review claiming school closures would have “limited effect” on COVID spread.
Used by Govt to justify reopening schools.
🟰 weak evidence, strong influence.
📎 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32272089
1. They clearly state it's a disease with strong female bias.
2. It's strength is that it's a large study that identifies population ave differences. 131,303 contols, 1455 ME cases
1/13 embopress.org/doi/full/10.10…
3. It took remarkable commitment as this was done in the researchers own time without funding.
4. That the effect of ME can be seen in molecular and cellular traits reinforcing that it's an ongoing organic disease. 511 blood based biomarkers were found.
/2
5. The key effects are chronic inflammation, insulin resistance & liver disease.
-chronic inflammation
elevated C-reactive protein [CRP] and cystatin C levels, and leucocyte and neutrophil counts
/3
😎 Top cooling tips - Some of the best ways to beat the heat 🧵
🧊 Cool from the Outside 1. Cooling vests, neck wraps, gel packs, head caps 2. Feet in cool water 3. Cooling Mat 4. Freeze hot water bottles, flannels, ice bricks 5. Bamboo cooling sheets 6. Shower b4 bed
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🍧Cool from the Inside 1. Suck ice cubes, frozen fruit ie grapes 2. Keep cold water in fridge, can add mint, fruit, electrolytes 3. Avoid caffiene 4. Ice popsicles, can use moulds & add juice + electrolytes 5. Stay hydrated, sip not gulp 6. Oral rehydration salts, salty snacks
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💨Air Flow 1. Create a cool zone 2. Portable AC 3. Evaporative air coolers 4. Cross winds when cooler 5. Personal attachable fans 6. Tech with quiet mark 7. Blow hot air out window 8. Mist room & use fan
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We have serious concerns about the appointment of Dr Terry Segal as paediatric expert in the @covidinquiryuk
This is due to her problematic history with ME, association with BACME & present framing of #LC
🧐What does the evidence say? /1
Segal is a consultant in general paediatrics & adolescents at UCHL & co-lead of the Pan London Post Covid Service.
She is a co-author of the CLoCK study that presumed 'lockdown anxiety' & other abnormal behaviours contributed to #LC
More details 👇 /2 longcovidadvoc.com/post/is-the-gr…
She also developed the Psychoeducational materials for CYP alongside BACME mainstay Gregorowski.
These are based on PDSA - plan, do, study, act.
Which is essentially goal setting & pacing up. This is now on the kids section of 'Your Covid Recovery' app /3 researchgate.net/publication/36…
This is the very real danger we are facing in the 🇬🇧 with clinical care.
#LC is being seen as persistent & is going to be integrated with chronic pain & other unexplainable 'persistent symptoms'. 🧵/1
The problem is there's real issues in chronic pain clinical practice. It follows a problematic biopsychosocial approach of 'central sensitisation'. Which essentially means there's no 'real' physical cause. /2
It's a dubious theory & often comes with significant patient trauma. With little actual investigation. It's likely alot of pain comes from mechanisms we don't yet understand that aren't on a visible level. /3