"..whats keeping them sick may not be a virus in the first place" - "the virus may have started something off....all sorts of other factors may be responsible for why they are ill many years later". I note that the basis of such a statement is simply Wessely's notion of "other"
https://twitter.com/ABrokenBattery/status/1537827731458727936
The virus may have started something off? - what exactly? the key question Wessely never answered. Deale and Wessely ran a survey of ME patients in his own clinic & most recounted an infection and were dissatisfied with a psychiatric diagnosis. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Deale/Wessely viewed patients' disagreement with a psych diagnosis for ME/CFS as evidence of Stigma - I read, its simply patients disagreeing because its an error. ME/CFS know their own bodies, if fit and well and then sick after a virus, why believe its a mental health breakdown 
#LongCovid: lets apply same error: Sars-Covid-19 may have kicked something off but "..whats keeping them sick may not be a virus in the first place...the virus may have started something off...all sorts of other factors may be responsible for why they are ill many years later".
As a researcher, if I can uncover any evidence to support my claim on "other factors" - eg some LongCovid patients watched more news channels than recovered patients, are more depressed, report being more stressed pre-Covid, I can say I have evidence its not the virus but other.
By starting with a theory or assumption/aka model, you wish to support, this bias spills over into methodological bias in studies, whereby confirmation bias accentuates the original error - this happened in #ME/CFS & is likely to happen in #LongCovid research if unchecked.
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