"How to support your friend who lives with ME/CFS or long COVID" - Emerge Australia, 2025

[Dolphin]

https://www.emerge.org.au/how-to-support-your-friend-who-lives-with-me-cfs-or-long-covid/

https://twitter.com/user/status/1915839893244194947

 

[Hutan]

This isn't bad, I think, there's important content here. It gets better further down when it gets into practical suggestions and notes the range of severities. Some of the content would make a good start for a similar forum fact sheet.

But

People with ME/CFS and long COVID don’t make as much energy at a cellular level as a healthy person.

• Exercise is not a cure for ME/CFS or long COVID – people with ME/CFS have problems making energy at a cellular level, so they need to preserve their limited energy reserves to avoid triggering PEM.

Emerge surely knows better than that. @Simone, maybe something you could get fixed? There's absolutely no need to get in to unevidenced/speculative biological claims in this resource.

Research has found that the symptoms of long COVID, in particular PEM, are very similar to the symptoms of ME/CFS.

I also disagree with presenting Long Covid as a single thing, rather than an umbrella description for post-Covid-19 symptoms. If a person meets ME/CFS criteria after a Covid-19 infection, then they have ME/CFS, just the same as someone who meets ME/CFS criteria after glandular fever.

 

[Hutan]

Oh, I forgot to mention - there's a stray bullet point at the end that someone at Emerge might want to deal with. A very minor formatting issue.

 

[Trish]

I got as far as the claim about cell biology and stopped reading. I agree with Hutan that it's a pity Emerge open themselves up to criticism based on poorly evidenced claims in material that may be otherwise very useful.

 

[Simone]

C

This isn't bad, I think, there's important content here. It gets better further down when it gets into practical suggestions and notes the range of severities. Some of the content would make a good start for a similar forum fact sheet.

But




Emerge surely knows better than that. @Simone, maybe something you could get fixed? There's absolutely no need to get in to unevidenced/speculative biological claims in this resource.



I also disagree with presenting Long Covid as a single thing, rather than an umbrella description for post-Covid-19 symptoms. If a person meets ME/CFS criteria after a Covid-19 infection, then they have ME/CFS, just the same as someone who meets ME/CFS criteria after glandular fever.

Can you send that feedback through to Emerge: information@emerge.org.au

Thank you!