Advice from 'experts' on post-viral fatigue following Covid-19 (NHS Oxford Health, Science Media Centre, ...)

Well done on the quick response and collaborative action.

Although I do find it unfortunate that the response focuses on the argument that many biological abnormalities have been found in ME/CFS. In my view, these findings aren't as robust as suggested. I prefer arguments to focus on the lack of evidence for GET, the boom-bust cycle and other claims made in the Oxford document.
 
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Well done on the quick response and collaborative action.

Although I do find it unfortunate that the response focuses on the argument that many biological abnormalities have been found in ME/CFS. In my view, these findings aren't as robust as suggested. I prefer arguments to focus on the lack of evidence for GET, the boom-bust cycle and other claims made in the Oxford document.
Agreed. I will write/Tweet to Cochrane . I love the placeholder shadow on the website where the leaflet used to be - classic!
 
Not sure if this has been posted already:

from the SMC:

April 11, 2020
expert comment on treatment and recovery post-COVID infection
Let’s take a look at the SARS cases recovery. One year after recovery, two thirds of patients had some evidence of mental health impact, including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress1. From this we can extrapolate that patients recovering from COVID-19 should be advised to actively engage with mental health services, whether directly or via home-based approaches.
Whilst post-infection lung function was within normal range for those patients, they also demonstrated reduced exercise tolerances2. That finding of normal lung function testing post SARS recovery is important, as it has not been possible to draw a convincing connection between pulmonary function and post infection reduced exercise capacity3.
The lack of correlation between normal lung function and post-infection reduced exercise tolerance suggests that there may be more subtle changes underlying the functional impairment some patients have experienced, possibly suggesting a facet of post viral fatigue affecting patients. In such cases a combination of physical interventions such as physiotherapy and graded exercise programmes may provide benefits. Additionally providing clinically validated mental health interventions such as CBT, good nutrition and possibly antidepressants may be an active part of recovery4.
Graded exercise tolerance and mental health support interventions and could likely be extended to patients who are recovering from COVID-19.

https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-comment-on-treatment-and-recovery-post-covid-infection/
 
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Not sure if this has been posted already:

from the SMC:

April 11, 2020
expert comment on treatment and recovery post-COVID infection





https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-comment-on-treatment-and-recovery-post-covid-infection/
Never miss a good opportunity to push propaganda. Always cherry-picking, always pushing the propaganda. Very biased, completely one-sided. And the SMC was supposedly created with the exact opposite mission. Good grief. The obsession with lungs, which no one who knows what they're talking about would suggest is the reason for chronic long-term post-viral symptoms, shows the playbook: healthy lungs = perfectly healthy = mental health. It fixates on an irrelevant deflection as if it was the deciding factor. This is professional grade propaganda.

There are going to be a lot of confused physician faces in the near future, told they're imagining things that they will now have first-hand experience that's it's all a bunch of made-up nonsense. Even more confused faces when those physicians and nurses can't get back to work, no matter how much they yell STOP at their symptoms while singing mindful yoga acceptance.

Again, degrading the value of expertise this way, at a time when it's critical for the general public to trust experts, is extremely self-defeating. Alternative medicine practitioners and unlicensed snake oil peddlers should almost pay the SMC for all the future clients they will be sending their way, it's basically an earned benefit.
 
Not sure if this has been posted already:

from the SMC:

April 11, 2020
expert comment on treatment and recovery post-COVID infection





https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-comment-on-treatment-and-recovery-post-covid-infection/

SMC and NHS are so fast with their BS. Young health care worker will probably be most of risk to develop post Corona Fatigue or ME/CFC because of exposure and age :( And nobody will take them serious if the lung and bloodwork look fairly ok.
 
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Not sure if this has been posted already:

from the SMC:

April 11, 2020
expert comment on treatment and recovery post-COVID infection

https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-comment-on-treatment-and-recovery-post-covid-infection/
Its written by some unknown locum GP, which I think will significantly compromise its take-up by news outlets. Wonder why the SMC hasn't called on the usual suspects? Is it some sort of weird false flag operation? Or am I being paranoid here?
 
As OMEGA is the local group for Oxford area, we are considering our own response to the pamphlet, in addition to supporting the @PhysiosforME response.

I’m really disturbed by the complete anonymity of the group that produced this. Can someone tell me if this is usual or not?

We are in touch with local contacts to see what we can learn, but so far don’t have anything concrete. The community service wasn’t aware before we alerted them, which seems odd. (However, we’ve learned they have been redeployed in the current crisis.)

Thanks, Priscilla, OMEGA chair
 
I’m really disturbed by the complete anonymity of the group that produced this. Can someone tell me if this is usual or not?
The PRG's Fatigue "Guide" is Guides are still up at the Worcestershire health and care site (under Mental Health).(*)

In the same rubric there are three additional 'guides' authored by other groups or individuals, i.e.:

- Coronavirus and CBT by Kelly Watkins

- Living with worry and anxiety amidst global uncertainty by 'Psychology Tools Limited'/ Dr Matthew Whalley & Dr Hardeep Kaur

- Coronavirus Easy Read by mencap ( https://www.mencap.org.uk/ )

https://www.hacw.nhs.uk/covid19/

[Eta link to S4ME thread on Psychology Tools Ltd]

(*) The Fatigue 'Guide' has now been removed, see post #61 in this thread.
 
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Its written by some unknown locum GP, which I think will significantly compromise its take-up by news outlets. Wonder why the SMC hasn't called on the usual suspects? Is it some sort of weird false flag operation? Or am I being paranoid here?
How nice, the GP has devised a way to fully rehabilitate a group debilitated by a new virus with just a few basic interventions
 
He was interviewed on the "Inside Health" programme on BBC Radio 4 today:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hfrs
Oh, goodie, our shopping bad experiment specialist sitting on the expert review panel for a disease she clearly does not understand:
For people who have already found themselves worrying excessively about their health or who have an obsessive compulsive disorder related to hand washing, this is a particularly difficult time. With all of us now on the look-out for symptoms, Claudia Hammond speaks to Jo Daniels, a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at Bath University who specialises in health anxiety, and David Adam, author of the Man Who Couldn’t Stop – an intimate account of the power of obsessional thoughts.
Quit thinking you're sick and you won't be sick anymore. Easy. Magic. The power of BS.
 
Oh, goodie, our shopping bad experiment specialist sitting on the expert review panel for a disease she clearly does not understand:

Quit thinking you're sick and you won't be sick anymore. Easy. Magic. The power of BS.
Well OCD and health anxiety are legitimate problems too, and this time is hard for people who suffer from those. There's no need to criticise people for speaking about these conditions.
 
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