'Long Covid Research Initiative' and Polybio funded to research viral persistence and antiviral treatments

PolyBio Research Foundation Receives $1.3 Million Gift to Advance the study of SARS-CoV-2 Viral Persistence in patients with LongCovid

https://polybio.org/portfolio/intestinal-tissue/

 

The one Putrino didn't get from NIH was on microclots, so I think entirely different (apparently, they didn't provide any reviewer comments, so no info on why it didn't get funded).

 

As well—Did they (AP) manage to get a lab anywhere by chance? I’m guessing they are just passing the money through to Mehandru.

 

Moved from the long covid in the media thread

Another tweet from an email.
@polybioRF

Huge news! We received ~1.3M from Balvi (
@VitalikButerin
) for a study of #LongCovid intestinal tissue w/
@MehandruLab
,
@PutrinoLab
&
@drmfreire
. We will use cutting-edge technologies to identify SARS-CoV-2 + immune/microbiome abnormalities in samples: https://polybio.org/portfolio/intestinal-tissue/…

 

A mention of ME/CFS

About PolyBio Research Foundation


PolyBio Research Foundation is a 501(c)3 transforming how infection-associated chronic conditions like LongCovid, ME/CFS & Post-Treatment Lyme disease are studied, diagnosed, and treated. PolyBio was founded by scientists with complementary expertise (neuroscience, microbiology & genetics). The core PolyBio team conceptualizes research projects that identify root cause drivers of these conditions, and build collaborative teams to make the projects a reality.

 

Post copied from the New Zealand news thread.

Radio NZ reporting tonight...
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/47...ces-to-study-leading-theory-behind-long-covid

It doesn't sound like they are looking at ME/CFS research or collaborating with??

 

Merged thread

Scientists seek $100mn to research long Covid

Subscription required to view
https://www.ft.com/content/5d25e42e-b59d-41a4-a69c-214d5872efe6

Also mentioned here:
https://www.reuters.com/business/he...-leading-theory-behind-long-covid-2022-09-08/

 

It doesn't seem like this organization is new, just that they've received a large donation and are starting a major push for funding. A positive development nonetheless.
Their website: lc19.org
Their Twitter: research_long
While their website doesn't seem to mention ME/CFS, their news page has a list of researchers with many familiar faces. They claim to be collaborating with the likes of Amy Proal, David Putrino, and David Systrom.

 

Proal is the Chief Scientific Officer for LCRI.

 

Can you provide a link for this?

Why is Systrom associated with this group?

This will be a massive waste of money as it is a project of Amy’s to demonstrate that there are viruses that are causing the symptoms of LC/MECFS.

For those new to this arena, Amy Proal’s major contribution to science is pushing a pseudoscientific theory called the Marshall Protocol.

http://www.cureality.com/blog/post/2008/03/31/the-marshall-protocol-and-other-fairy-tales.html

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-marshal-protocol/

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1567725456337633281

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1567917563799027719

 

Haven't read much yet, but there is more. Much more.

Although, I think this may be all for nothing. I just saw Gaffney's wife whining about red flags in this research and she noticed that it appears that they are researching "untested theories" (she must have meant hypothesis but whatever), and that's just not allowed, obviously. In science we only research things we already know about, obviously. I'm not sure how she thinks scientific theories happen. Probably something about birds and cabbages.

In all of this, it's one of the most annoying things, that the people who successfully impeded this, who ruined millions of lives, are such small, tiny, mediocre thinkers with mediocre opinions.

Also, you see, it was funded by private tech money. And that's just truly awful. I'm sure she has identical takes about the same issue with other diseases. Oh, yeah.

 

Adam Gaffney is a serial commentator and physician/influencer who has painted Long Covid as a form of mass hysteria. He’s spoken favorably on the FND construct and penned a piece in which he was rather effusive toward Simon Wessely.

His wife is a prominent journalist who holds similar views and is far more pugilistic in her communications. She was criticizing the formation of this Long Covid research initiative on multiple grounds. In my opinion, they are adversaries of every patient in this forum.

 

She didn’t just attribute her recovery to the Protocol. Virtually her entire “scholarly” and “academic” career was spent researching this “protocol” with Trevor Marshall.

If you want an expert on auto-immunity, I would defer to @Jonathan Edwards and not Amy and Trevor.

Bogus biological research is just as bad as bogus BPS research, but Amy has the potential to waste a great deal more money than the BPS folks.

See her publications with Marshall here

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,10&q=AD+proal&btnG=

 

Had not noticed that. Lots of private money behind this. Looooooooots of money and life sciences technology.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1568319573887254531


Then again, Davis is pretty much as big as Venter science-wise, just not as commercially-oriented.