Professor Paul Garner and Dr Charles Shepherd, have spoken to a journalist from Manchester Evening News who has written an article ‘This explanation of Long Covid helped me overcome my hellish struggle with the illness’.
Dan Thompson, Manchester Evening News.
The article discusses Paul Garners recovery from Long Covid, and there may be many anecdotal cases (n=1) of improvement or recovery in the UK. However, without scientific evidence from robust clinical trials that replicate research findings supporting a certain therapy, treatments or medication, then this is merely unfounded conjecture by Paul Garner.
Summary
- Professor Paul Garner, specialist in infectious diseases, experienced Long Covid for 10 months.
- Paul Garner claims a “malfunction” can make the brain and body stuck in “emergency response” mode, leading to prolonged symptoms.
- Garner used techniques like visualisation, outdoor walks, and avoiding emotional stress to manage symptoms.
- Garner emphasised that Long Covid is not imagined; symptoms are real but are caused by brain dysfunction, not physical tissue damage.
- Many medical professionals and patients deemed his views “anecdotal,” “pseudoscience,” or “dangerous.”
- Dr Charles Shepherd, an expert on ME/CFS says: One person's experience of what works and what does not work, cannot be translated to everyone with a diagnosis of Long Covid.
- The ME Association and Dr Charles Shepherd (MEA Hon. Medical Adviser) fervently refutes the psychosomatic model of causation applies to ME/CFS or indeed Long Covid
Extracts
Professor Paul Garner, a specialist in infectious diseases, was ‘beaten up' by Long Covid for around 10 months, then he was given an explanation that transformed his life.
Paul, at that time a professor at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, wrote about his symptoms for a medical journal and was one of the first people to report having Long Covid – also known as post Covid-19 syndrome – a condition characterised by symptoms such as extreme tiredness, shortness of breath, ‘brain fog’, dizziness, joint pain and muscle aches – among others.
This was incredibly frightening and nobody was really coming up with an explanation and there was nothing much online that I could find. There was this thing that it could be induced by overdoing it, he goes on. I couldn’t read, my head was a mess, I muddled up my words, I couldn’t say things straight, I couldn’t read emails.
Paul wrote about his experience for the British Medical Journal (BMJ). His last blog describing his recovery was met with many critical comments – saying his views were anecdotal, ‘pseudoscience’ not backed by scientific evidence, dangerous, irresponsible and ‘inexcusably unprofessional’. Others pointed out that he may simply have recovered from post viral fatigue – as many people do – around the same time he was given this explanation.
Paul says he does not believe there will ever be a drug to treat Long Covid and there will not be a test to confirm if someone has it. But he wants to get across the message that there is hope and there is a way to get better.
All we need people to do is open up the possibility to think that their brain is involved in some way. That then provides pathways to help them to recover.
N.B Back in May 2020, Paul Garner expressed his thanks for the information and guidance on management given to him by Dr Charles Shepherd
The MEA Article Quote
Dr Charles Shepherd, a world renowned expert on ME/CFS, is the honorary medical advisor to the ME association – the health charity that advocates for people affected by the illness.
Dr Shepherd, who developed ME after catching chickenpox from one of his hospital patients around 40 years ago, goes on to say that he provided Paul with some ‘information and guidance’ on how to manage his activity during the early stages of his illness, ‘which he found helpful’. Paul wrote about this in one of his early BMJ blogs on the subject.
MEA Comment
As with a proportion of people with Long Covid he has eventually improved and recovered. But I don't believe that one person's experience of what works and what does not work, can be translated to everyone with a diagnosis of Long Covid.
Dr Charles Shepherd
As far as ME/CFS is concerned, the idea that this is a psychosomatic illness that is perpetuated by abnormal illness beliefs and behaviours has been rejected by National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE), Medical Research Council (MRC) and Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and most medical opinion. And I don't believe that this sort of psychosomatic model of causation applies to Long Covid either.
Dr Charles Shepherd,
Trustee and Hon. Medical Adviser to the ME Association,
Member of the 2018-2021 NICE guideline on ME/CFS committee,
Member of the 2002 Chief Medical Officer's Working Group on ME/CFS
Further media coverage
- BMJ: Paul Garner: Covid-19 and fatigue—a game of snakes and ladders | May 2020
MEA Information
