let's switch that around. one desperate need in the m.e. population is knowing the effect of covid on existing pwme. e.g. susceptibility to covid, course of covid, worsening of m.e. recovery time, effect on and of m.e. comorbidities. sleep. they should have pwme and controls willing to volunteer, stratified by m.e. severity [definitely including housebound and bedridden], m.e. criteria, age, sex. subjects privately keep track of their possible exposures and health status including sleep quality. they and their carers and cohabitants get tested regularly. if any get covid, the researchers track their symptoms and signs along with good medical care. as research subjects, they should not be triaged out. treatment is as medical care and subjects determine necessary. if simmaron did THAT, i would be pleased. but m.e. is the dispensible disease. pwme are already considered less worthy as citizens and as humans. this is getting dangerous as i pointed out in https://www.s4me.info/posts/254263/ . covid is urgent. but to partly abandon m.e. -- and similar -- /if/ that is what they are doing, sends the wrong message, regardless of their good intentions. in hurricane katrina, bedridden were abandoned. what more abandonment will pwme -- and more diseases than m.e. -- face as the covid pandemic and its political response continues?
From the Tahoe Outbreak to COVID-19 Dr. Peterson and Simmaron Take on the Coronavirus – and ME/CFS http://simmaronresearch.com/2020/06/covid-19-tahoe-outbreak-peterson/
It's down to the states, the federal government has checked out of it. Not sure if it will happen this time, there was an attempt a few weeks back that was cancelled, but all federal testing funding will run out at the end of the month. The direction at the top is that it will disappear like magic. Everything flows from that. Cities and county-level actually have to do most of the work since the US does not have a public health system, it has dozens of disparate and disconnected systems, some are up to the task, many aren't. In rural areas there will typically be a network of a few, maybe 1-2 or up to a handful, private for-profit hospitals. There is no other layer that will step in. Otherwise it's large private insurer-type of companies, Health Management Organizations, that are effectively in charge of hospital networks. Some are structured as charities but many are strictly for-profit. The major issue is that elective surgeries in the US system are the money-maker, emergency medicine is an expense. In a public health system elective surgeries are an expensive cost. In the US when they are stopped all major income stops. There was stop-gap funding a few months ago but it was only enough to buy time while building up capacity. Capacity was not built and because of costs patients are going in much later and sicker, requiring extensive labor. Communities are rising to the task as best as they can. But the government has checked out of the issue and is working to reopen "the economy" ASAP, oblivious to the fact that "the economy" includes public health.
Merged thread Simmaron Research Newsletter Summer 2023 Here is the most recent Simmaron Research newsletter….. …………… Simmaron’s mission is to change the game for ME and Long-Covid drug research, so we can finally have treatments! We are resolving key roadblocks that prevent our entire research community from moving forward: lack of an animal model and poorly defined subsets. These key components will not only enable our team to develop treatments, it will blow the door open for outside researchers and pharmaceutical companies to invest in ME/CFS and Long-Covid research. Read our mid-year review to learn about our goals and progress, and stay tuned for new publications coming this Fall! https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...tent&eId=56994532-23b6-4116-ba04-873b7524965f
Right - mental note - NEVER donate to Simmaron Research. Animal models do NOT help with human illness. See https://www.s4me.info/threads/resea...-on-funding-research-that-uses-animals.23099/ and https://www.s4me.info/threads/aav-d...ral-load-2022-aubert-et-al.29693/#post-439106 and they are bloody cruel.
Merged thread Simmaron’s Rapamycin ME/CFS Trial Moves Forward: The Goal – FDA Approval Cort Johnson https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2025/02/01/simmarons-rapamycin-chronic-fatigue-fda-approval/ Gunnar Gottschalk, the primary investigator, reported that with most of the results in, a significant percentage of patients were considered responders. He stated that the responders “were seeing a significant number of changes in key symptoms, including reductions in PEM, improved energy, and reduced brain fog.
"people with other subsets (autoantibodies, MCAS, etc.)" doesn't inspire too much confidence in the article for me.