Article and Documentary BBC: Long Covid: Early findings bring hope for diagnostic tests

Panorama's Long Covid: Will I Ever Get Better? will be on BBC One at 19:35 BST on Monday 12 July and on BBC iPlayer (UK only)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57776010

 

I just read this, came here to find out what people on here think. I don't know enough to know if this is likely to be a useful test or not.

 

The fascinating part will be once the paper is released and whether we see the autoantibodies that the Imperial team claim to have detected match those seen the Scheibenbogen team in ME/CFS. (And, until we see a paper, we shouldn't get too excited: I want to see the sample size, statistical significance, correction for multiple comparisons etc etc).


Also: the rule 'never just read the abstract' applies 1000x as much to the press release

 

Guardian article on the same subject - looks to be broadly the same messaging except

"Prof Altmann’s research on a blood test for long Covid was filmed as a work-in-progress for BBC’s Panorama and is at a very early stage. "

seems to suggest that we shouldn't expect a published paper appearing that quickly.

https://www.theguardian.com/society...-antibody-discovery-raises-hope-of-blood-test

 

I wonder whether we should have less hope for ourselves about this, given that I thought that autoimmunity had been already quite thoroughly explored and ruled out for us (or maybe I'm wrong about that).

 

I also wonder whether some of this work is treading similar paths to those already followed in ME, and will ultimately produce similarly disappointing results. I hope not, of course, but when you get new researchers entering a field, it's inevitable that there'll be some reinventing of the wheel.

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1414542698149818368


This is a longer article than the one posted at the top of this thread: “Long Covid: Will I ever get better?”: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-57693637

Long Covid: Will Paul Garner ever go away?

 

I thought we all knew the brain was connected to the body (it's called the neck). I thought the BPS mantra was about mind being connected to body.

Four legs bad again?

 

Perhaps we are experiencing Long Paul Garner? We thought that we'd be afflicted by him for a shorter period of time than has actually been the case, and he's still hanging around making our lives a misery?

 

I really feel for her and getting it a second time too - such bad luck.

In the article she says, 'Several people got in touch to tell me I would never get better. That I needed to accept my position was permanent.' I saw some people saying this to her on twitter after her first article came out. I thought it was inappropriate. Not what you need to hear when you are newly ill, even if it might be possibility.

haha! I wonder how much he will feature in the Panorama this evening

 

Anyone got a link to the study or press release? I checked the obvious places and found nothing. Not even on Imperial College's website.
Danny Altmann hasn't tweeted it either.

 

As journalism goes, this is a terrible piece, one of the worst ones so far and a disservice to the public. It's too conflicting to have to push an alternative reality that can't be reconciled with reality. The message is obviously being pushed top-down.

But then again, how are science journalists supposed to do when they are misinformed by the medical professionals they interview? Everything is in the choice of people to interview, and it's hard to choose worse than Garner and Carson. This is manufacturing consent, not journalism, not public health.

 

I don't think I've ever seen a pwME in a wheelchair suffering from 'extreme tiredness'.

Tiredness is a lack of sleep. I believe 90% of the population would be in wheelchairs if this was the case.

 

The BBC's appalling coverage of long covid appears to be intensifying recently.

Re: testing, where did this idea come from that you cannot diagnose people clinically?
Such a test could be misused if misinterpreted and used to exclude LC.

 

He does appear in divers places.

 

I am in a wheelchair because of severe ataxia and the consequences of having a positive Romberg sign which was once considered to be added to the diagnosis of ME. Many people with ME are in wheelchairs because of POTS.

Until the experts on ME acknowledge these things we will get nowhere.

 

Except she doesn't bounce back like him with positive manly thoughts. At the end--now--she still has symptoms. she's improved but not better. Alan Carson also has a supporting role.