News from Germany

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach provides a crucial update on the ongoing Long COVID situation, as Germany faces a new wave amidst the holiday season. (with English subtitles)

https://twitter.com/user/status/1731941221503812060

 

Not news but wow he is definitely the right person in post

(Compare and contrast)

 

The minister has sparked interest and the attention of many M.D's on X.

 

Translation of Lauterbach's statement about the Long Covid round table:

 

ME/CFS Research Foundation on Twitter www.twitter.com/MECFSResearch
"In 2024, a #MECFS research project will start at ChariteBerlin, which we are jointly funding with the @LostVoicesStiftung. Focus: researching biomarkers and disease mechanisms using an advanced blood analysis method."
Details can be found here https://mecfs-research.org/en/researchfunding-charite/.

Seems like a sensible project as a PhD project to me.

 

Has this been posted before? It's from 2022, but searching for it doesn't find anything. The translated title is appropriately biting.


Long Covid and ME/CFS - crime story about an illness
https://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/audio...-und-mecfs---krimi-um-eine-krankheit-100.html

Post Covid is a mystery. The syndrome is not all that new. As early as 1955, a similar illness was described that occurs after viral infections: ME/CFS, chronic fatigue syndrome. Why are there no therapies to date?// By Nicolas Morgenroth

 

German youtuber and specialist in internal medicine and gastroenterology is asking for input about ME/CFS from patients:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1748599485964448219

 

No information on whether this is ill-intentioned or not as far as I can tell.

 

A study by the German Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies is making a lot of headlines right now, attributing a contraction of the German economy in 2023 to record illness, whereas without it, without COVID essentially, it would have grown.


Was sickness pushing Germany into recession?
https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/konjunktur/rekord-krankenstand-rezession-100.html

Without the high level of sickness, the German economy would obviously have grown and not shrunk in 2023. This is the result of a study by the Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies.

According to an analysis, the record high number of sick people last year pushed the German economy into recession. "Significant loss of work led to considerable losses in production - without the above-average sick days, the German economy would have grown by almost 0.5 percent," says a study by the Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (VFA) , which was available to tagesschau.de in advance. Instead, the economy shrank by 0.3 percent .
...
“The economic consequences of high levels of sick leave are considerable and lead to a significant loss of value added,” write the authors of the study, Claus Michelsen and Simon Junker. “If sick leave had not been so high again, around 26 billion euros would have been generated additionally in 2023.”
...
In addition, the insurance companies have lost five billion euros due to the enormous sickness absence in the last two years. In addition, it led to tax revenue shortfalls of 15 billion euros.

In particular, the comparison of economic developments in an international context puts them in a different light, according to the researchers. "At least in 2023, Germany is in the truest sense of the word the 'sick man', whose economic performance will be significantly more affected by the wave of illnesses than in other countries."
...
“As in the previous year, the main reason for the high level of absenteeism is sick leave due to colds such as flu infections, bronchitis or influenza. They account for more than a quarter of the absenteeism days,” said Jens Baas, CEO of TK, to the Funke newspapers. On average, each employed person was absent 5.11 days due to colds.

Before the corona pandemic, employees were only on sick leave for 2.37 days. The second most common absences were due to mental illness, with an average of 3.6 days per year. The DAK also reported on one: Mental illnesses such as depression led to 323 days of absence per 100 insured people.
​

A big question is how much of that "mental illness" category is actually mental illness, and how much of it is chronic illness mislabeled as mental illness. As we know, psychosomatic ideology is especially strong in Germany, so it's likely most of it.

 

There is also an easier to listen version for ME sufferers. I've listened to the first 30 minutes, it seems like an excellent review of ME history and politics. David Tuller and Carmen Scheibenbogen are in it, as is an evil psych for balance. The piece starts with a long covid sufferer who attended a clinic for 4 weeks where she learned to pace. On leaving, she was handed a diagnosis of post-covid syndrome, anxiety, depression, and neurasthenia F48.0. When she asked what that was, she was told it was the diagnosis for chronic fatigue syndrome.

Neurasthenia is still a thing in Germany, also in the recent couple of years since covid. Methinks I shall remain under the radar until I can emerge from my hidey-hole without being seized and subjected to trial by accursed morsel for witchcraft, popery, or whatever else it is I have done to cause offence.

Also interesting was the explanation of McEvedy and Beard's logic - the outbreak at the Royal Free must have been hysteria because more woman than men were affected - anything with an organic cause would have affected men and women equally.

 

Interesting to know that pregnancy and child birth are then also psychogenic, because more women than men get pregnant.

 

See Cytokines IL1β, IL6, TNFα and serum cortisol levels may not constitute reliable biomarkers to identify individuals with post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (2024, Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders) —

 

Hessenschau Wie ein 13-Jähringer aus Wiesbaden gegen Long Covid kämpft

google translation and quotes:

How a 13-year-old from Wiesbaden is fighting Long Covid

Lias is not alone with his illness. According to the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KV), 4,465 children and young people throughout Hesse have been affected by Long Covid since the beginning of the pandemic. 85 children and young people in Hesse have received a confirmed diagnosis of the most severe form of ME/CFS in combination with Long Covid like Lias.

...

It is a great relief for the families that their symptoms are taken seriously, said Kollmar. Diagnosing Long Covid is complex: “We are still too poor in our search for the causes,” said the doctor. There is no biomarker for Long Covid that can be determined using a blood sample.

And so Long Covid is purely a diagnosis of exclusion. More than 200 symptoms can occur in various combinations. A team of specialists checks that there is no other illness behind it. The many appointments are a burden for those affected. They are therefore admitted to the Kassel clinic for four days. This means you have enough time to rest between examinations.

And even if the diagnosis of Long Covid is made, one cure cannot be prescribed because that does not yet exist. An important part of the therapy is therefore learning a strategy to better manage your own energy, explained Kollmar. This is called pacing, i.e. the correct allocation of the low energy reserves after the illness.

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1779936770567848426



I am urgently looking for a legal sparring partner who is well-versed in school and social law.

It is not about general obligations, but rather advice on a large educational project with a focus on “education with #MECFS and its legal adversities.”

 

Livestream of the "Liegenddemo" in Berlin. The German Minister of Health had a short speech as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RIlCxgSyDA

There are protests in 12 cities.

edit:
Prof. Scheibenbogen said in her speech that the Federal Ministry of Education and Research picked 7 research projects (I think they are funded with the 15 million Euro that were announced last summer). By the end of the year there will be around 30 research teams researching ME/CFS in Germany.

 

As is typical on social media, other than pwME and pwLC, most of the comments under those attribute LC to COVID vaccines. The continue cover-up of LC by medicine is fueling the biggest expansion of the antivaccine movement so far, and if it didn't exist before (thanks to The Lancet), it would now.

And of course most MDs will be baffled, puzzled, mystified at why millions more are turning antivaccine, and blame social media instead, likely push for awareness campaigns that will turn even more people against for the same reason. Mercy.