The type of interventions being promoted by PG (based on n=1) have been rejected for ME/CFS by CDC & NICE, which assessed all RCTs for non pharmacological therapies for ME/CFS as low and (mostly) “very low quality”. PLEASE don’t repeat these mistakes with #LongCovid. 1/ https://twitter.com/trishgreenhalgh/status/1353974475608510465

As well as concluding that these RCTs were mostly “very low quality” the draft NICE guideline highlights how harmful these treatments can be for people with PEM (see: https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4356/rr-0). Trials of these therapies for long covid would be unjustified and unethical. 2/

It’s also worth pointing out that Paul Garner’s recent article contradicts his previous BMJ blogs. Quack therapies like the Lightning Process (which use very similar language to that used by PG) brainwash patients to say they feel better when they don’t, so hard to know truth. 3/

Pleased for Paul Garner if he’s recovered. Many people recover naturally from PVFS within 2 years, and many falsely attribute their recovery to whatever whacky therapy they happened to be trying at the time. However, we should expect better from professors of medicine. 4/

Screenshot of comment on S4ME by Jonathan Edwards, emeritus professor of medicine at UCL, who gave the expert testimony to NICE which completely destroyed the case for recommending CBT and graded exercise as treatments for ME/CFS (see: https://mecfsresearchreview.me/2021/01/12/the-expert-testimony-to-nice-that-took-apart-the-case-for-cbt-and-graded-exercise-for-me-cfs/). /5