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I don't think they would have a problem claiming that the stress of the pandemic explains development of ME/CFS. It would be very biopsychosocial.

They improvements could disappear in a phase 3 trial, but how does one explain the association between greater improvement and HLA alleles? Is it possible that the treatment is no better than placebo, but the HLA alleles are protective and improve outcomes?

A newspaper is reporting that 61% of the people with suspicious symptoms and/or contact with confirmed cases in two of the hardest hit towns in the Bergamo province had positive serological tests. A second lab found a rate of 59%. At one hospital in Bergamo, the percentage of healthcare workers...

Refugee camps in Europe could be a big problem.

A clear suggestion that there is mass hysteria Of course maybe the higher incidence is down to purely medical reasons or reasons that have nothing to do with hysteria. Like these places having a few doctors that are actually diagnosing the illness.

Interesting. Would be it overly optimistic to say that despite the open label nature of the trial, they succeeded in producing some evidence that immunosuppression is helpful for a subset? Not definitive evidence but enough to say that this line of investigation is not a dead end? Edit: Second...

The logic appears to be: not disproved, therefore valid.

There is a lack of evidence that a positive attitude enables a recovery. Arguably studies like PACE show precisely that despite infusing hope and optimism in patients, this doesn't lead to an increase activity levels or a return to work. This is not science.

What comes next?

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3076334/coronavirus-strange-pneumonia-seen-lombardy-november-leading https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3076792/italian-professor-repeats-warning-coronavirus-may-have-spread

Moving on to the consensus part of the article:

The first case in Italy was identified on the 21st of February. Now investigators say it appears that at this point there were already 1200 cases in the Lombardy region. There also was already some excess mortality in January. The virus appears to have circulated in Italy for over a month...

@Snow Leopard what name would you choose?

In my opinion Jasons's argument is flawed because he operationalized PEM incorrectly when assessing the IOM criteria, and then found that there are problems. He claims this is due to lack of exclusionary conditions. I think it's because he misunderstands PEM. He also claims that the core...

That argument doesn't really make sense. What is meant with bias is presumably unrealistic positivity that is detached from reality, and only serves to create hope in the patients. A bit like what is done in LP. If that would translate into truly positive changes for patients, the effects would...

It barely mentions ME/CFS. It would have been an opportunity help doctors understand how to recognize PEM and OI. These are part of more definite syndromes.

How it describes the illness I like what I'm seeing in this document. There seems to be a minor error however.

Ignoring the usual issues with lack of blinding and subjective outcomes, the absence of a no-treatment group at an eventual long term follow up would mean it becomes impossible to tell whether LP is any better than doing nothing in the long term.

Presumbly they will compare the first group to second group, after the first has received LP and while the second is still untreated. In this case, it would effectively be an uncontrolled study.

Is anything known about the study design? If the study is competently designed it could indeed settle the controversy. Unfortunately I suspect that competent researchers would not take LP seriously in the first place or decide to spend time and resources on testing whether you can wish...