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:laugh: It does read as if someone's been trying to teach their AI to draft articles in preparation for the beginning of April.

Personally, I don't condemn the BMJ for publishing an opinion piece. That would only seem justifiable if they had refused to publish responses, and they haven't. Last night I saw that one response had been deleted, presumably because it was abusive or off-topic, but a number of strongly worded...

Just read that Guardian article myself – the final paragraphs stuck me too: But if there’s another lesson to be learned from Chikungunya, it is that these patients with lasting symptoms can’t simply be ignored. “Chikungunya is destroying the Brazilian health service, and it’s not so much...

Might it be quicker to list ones that are? It's not going to improve many cancers, autoimmune conditions, dementias, or even some degenerative diseases...

She's never off News 24! I've developed a bad habit of leaving it on some some days after watching the lunchtime news, and she seems to pop up onscreen at least once a week, answering some question or other about Covid. The BBC doesn't seem to know another GP/former GP.

I have an alarm installed in my house, as it's on an independent living scheme. It's one of those systems that uses a control box attached to a landline, plus a pendant or watch. I don't know whether other ME patients use them, but if you do, our local scheme has just sent information about a...

I very much hope he doesn't relapse – nobody wants to see yet another life wrecked. But if he does, he bloody well has the responsibility to say so. He decided to start this, after all.

Absolutely – but if the hypothesis is worth testing (and obviously most of us lack the knowledge to assess the merit), it strikes me as one of those that could be appropriate for applications to government-funded programmes. * If it is thought possible for the endocrine system to fall into a...

I hope that one of the centres is able to propose a study protocol that could investigate this once and for all. Scientists have been flagging the endocrine system as potentially important for decades, but the trouble is that they can't study it effectively by poking around the edges with a few...

I suspect #2 is probably significantly easier to do than #1, hence the reason for doing it that way around – though #1 may be a much more revealing question.

Indeed! I wonder if it would be worth talking to people (if no-one in the team knows already) with a knowledge of how general practice admin works? For instance, might it be possible for a practice administrator or manager to extract a list of records tagged with ME or CFS from the patient...

This has happened to me. Each time I went into remission I'd experienced a growing conviction that I could start doing things. I'd started the recovery process, and then become aware of it. And on a subjective level it can feel – quite strongly in some moments – as if it's a change of attitude...

Hopefully, being able to enlist the help of GPs and ME/CFS clinics when formal enrolment begins will help to boost the numbers. There must be patients who've never engaged with charities, groups, or online advocacy, or who have done in the past but drifted away because their health declined or...

Thanks so much for your excellent response, @Joan Crawford!

So I've had a reply, and it seems there isn't a missing page of questions. It apparently just assumes that people who say they receive benefits have difficulty paying for daily expenses, and asks what the reasons are. I decided to answer 'other' and enter text to say that the omission of more...

I've just tried to do the online survey, but there's a problem with it at the moment. The form jumps from questions numbered in the 30s into the 40s, and it's obvious from the context that there's something missing (I was asked at Q43 to state the reason I have difficulty paying for living...

Yup – and GPs are even worse! Aqueous cream is another thing my late mum was prescribed by the doctor, without any explanation at all about how to use it. When she mentioned to the pharmacist that her eczema wasn't getting any better, he asked whether she was putting more on her skin after...

I think it's also because allergies are so common, and for the most part are more a pain in the butt than a threat to health. It's possible for patients to fathom many of them out with trial and error, and if the reaction's not too serious, it may not even matter much whether something is an...

Yup – a proportion of disabled people are not ill, but there's a huge burden of chronic illness too. If you expect your population to work later and later into their lives, don't understand that a significant proportion have disabling illnesses (including those who would not even have survived...

I found out by accident some time ago that my award has been extended. I needed an up-to-date award letter to renew my Blue Badge, and when they sent it I noticed that the end date was nine months later than it had been. Today I actually got a notification of it. It's happened because they...