News from Scandinavia

BPS proponents David Gyll, Carl Sjöström and Henrik Vogt wrote a reply:

Brett perspektiv ger precision vid postcovid
https://lakartidningen.se/opinion/debatt/2022/10/brett-perspektiv-ger-precision-vid-postcovid/

Google Translate, English ("Broad perspective provides precision in postcovid")

Bergquist et al recently replied:

Replik: Författarna har missförstått vår avsikt
https://lakartidningen.se/opinion/debatt/2022/10/replik-forfattarna-har-missforstatt-var-avsikt/

Google Translate, English ("Reply: The authors have misunderstood our intention")

 

One of the authors comments on Twitter:

"We had a paragraph in our reply where we questioned that the journal of the Swedish Medical Association even publishes a reply that refers to an article from 1970 as support in the argumentation about postcovid. Unfortunately, it was deleted."

 

They talk so much and say so little. Every argument they make is egocentric and just the same old recycled garbage. Everything about themselves, for themselves, by themselves. Mediocre.

 

News etc about the Swedish ME/CFS study published today can be found in the study's forum thread:

Saliva antibody-fingerprint of reactivated latent viruses after mild/asymptomatic COVID-19 is unique in patients with [ME/CFS], 2022, Apostolou et al

 

Anna Amholt tvingas sluta – 22 år gammal
https://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbla...sluta-karriaren-blir-inte-frisk-fran-covid-19

 

Really sad. She's not the first hockey player to be sidelined by long Covid either. Brandon Sutter hasn't played since the 2020-21 NHL season. Then there was Dr. Mark Vink, a major ME advocate.

 

Good article in the Danish newspaper Information.

original Danish:
https://www.information.dk/debat/20...nter-behandling-danmark-lytter-ingen?lst_tag=

Google translated:
https://www-information-dk.translat...=da&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

 

This reckless attitude reminds me of this. When you can simply reject reality and substitute your own, nothing matters anymore.

"Well if that were true it would be terrible. But it is not."

And these people make a show out of pretending to listen to patients. Then they simply reply: you're lying, we know better.

 

BPS article on a ME case study, written by a GP at the ME center in Linköping, Sweden. Published in AllmänMedicin (the journal of the Swedish GP organisation SFAM).

Att stoppa snöbollar i nedförsbacke
https://allmanmedicin.sfam.se/p/all...snobollar-i-nedforsbacke/1919/584871/31111895

 

Opinion piece in a local Swedish paper.

ME-patienter behöver tas på allvar – nu
https://www.lt.se/2022-11-18/me-patienter-behover-tas-pa-allvar--nu

 

Yesterday there was a debate about ME in the Norwegian Parliament and these two propositions got a majority of votes (google translated):

- The Parliament asks the Government to go review regulations and practice to ensure that CFS/ME sufferers right to equal treatment is safeguarded in view of demands for appropriate treatment when applying for disability benefits

- The Parliament asks the Government to review regulations and practice to ensure that CFS/ME sufferers during clarification are not subject to requirements for treatment that is unavailable, or are refused in the public healthcare system

Patient advocate Sissel Sunde has written a thorough article about the history leading up to this:
Historisk dag for ME-syke
google translation: Historical day for ME sufferers

 

New article from the Norwegian broadcaster NRK about 25 year old Aurora who suffers from severe ME and now has lived against her will in a care institution for old people for over nine months. Local politicians are now asking the municipality to do something. Her wish is to move back home and receive the care she needs there.

NRK: Ber helsebyråden gripe inn og hjelpe Aurora: - Burde satt inn alle kluter
google translation: Asks the health board to intervene and help Aurora: - Should have done everything in their power

Aurora is also on Twitter and has written a thread about her stay at the institution, where the health care workers there obviously lack even a basic understanding of ME and some even are annoyed at her, leaving her very vulnerable.

 

I’m afraid I am not exactly sure what these propositions say. They might be useful for other countries to refer to but I’d like to be sure I know what they mean.

Who is refusing the treatment in the second proposition? Is it saying a patient has a right to refuse treatment and it shouldn’t affect their right to get disability payments? Or is it saying if the public health system refuses to offer the treatment, the patient can’t be blamed for not having done it?

 

Am a bit confused myself.

The first proposition I believe is an answer to what the research project "TjenestenogMEg" has revealed, that case workers have been asked to be specifically thorough when patients with ME or with drug/alcohol addiction applies for disability benefits.

The second proposition is a bit confusing. Perhaps it means that an ME patient can't be asked to undergo psychological therapy if no therapists see the point.

 

The stigma around ME is known to us mostly, most people know little about the disease. Most people do know something suffering from addiction, what I never understood is the need to be punitive towards those people.

I've worked at a social work institution where some of my co-workers were there through a program could arbeidsactivering, activate people to work again. Some of the addicted people went of the rails and they were subsequently cut from welfare.

The logic in that completely escapes me, because those people aren't suddenly going to quit needing food, housing and ultimately their hit of whatever. They'll just find other ways to get it, ways that end up costing society a lot more. I don't think people should get punished for addiction but views can differ on that. But even when looking at it from a pragmatic view-point this makes no sense to me whatsoever and it ends up costing a lot more too in economical terms.

 

Kan S aureus vara etiologiskt agens för ME/CFS och postcovid?
https://lakartidningen.se/opinion/d...a-etiologiskt-agens-for-me-cfs-och-postcovid/

Google Translate, English ("Can S aureus be an etiologic agent for ME/CFS and postcovid?")

 

(Paywalled) Johanna, 49, om att leva med ME – och kampen för att få rätt vård: ”Som en konstig mardröm”
https://www.jp.se/2022-12-05/johann...n-for-att-fa-ratt-vard-som-en-konstig-mardrom

 

Ironic, but this is one of the darkest truths with the continued obsession with psychosomatics, it not only ruined medicine's ability to deal with chronic illness, it also effectively made all efforts related to mental health so much worse that they amount to nothing, they ended up mixing so many different things in there that the whole thing could be restarted from scratch and nothing of value would be lost.

Even the data recorded so far are so incomplete and misleading that it amounts to nothing. While they essentially mock suffering they create themselves. Truly the lowest point in the history of the profession: the era where snake oil was made official, ending any separation between science and pseudoscience.