MP Tessa Munt chairs APPG on ME and shares an uplifting message for 2026! "I was honoured to be asked to step into chair the APPG... on behalf of Jo Platt today. It was really encouraging to see a number of MPs and MPs researchers present..." Read more: https://meassociation.org.uk/gva2 #pwME

Our Scientific Director, Jaime Seltzer @exceedhergrasp1.bsky.social, is giving a talk on Dec. 17 at 12 pm ET: Improving Quality of Life in ME/CFS & Infection-Associated Chronic Conditions. Register: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi... Available on a donate as you're able basis & 20% goes to #MEAction.

⚠️ We didn't "Learn to live with Covid" (or 'flu). The public have been misinformed about the availability of protective masks. You need to fix this @teamlabouruk.bsky.social! #SackRitchie #Flu

So, you don't like masks. Perhaps you don't like condoms either. Or seatbelts. It doesn't mean they don't work. Repeating a lie over and over again doesn't make it true. Masks work. A good mask (N95) worn correctly and consistently will protect you from airborne infections.

Long COVID is now the number one chronic illness in children, and it only took six years. Four, if you don't count 2020-2021, when we actually tried to protect them a little bit. And no, kids were not always sick all the time. We rarely if ever were, in the 60s. If you believe that, you're a fool.

There is always a leader. When public health steps aside like this, the most powerful voice in the room steps in. Big corporations. Dark money. Your Uncle that got his data from “trust me bro” sources. #PublicHealth

IMHO, terms like 'overdiagnosis' (which sound both analytical and neutral) are actually experienced as contempt from on high by people who rely on a diagnosis for more than medication. Systemic gaslighting/ victim blaming turns challenging circumstances into oppression.

“The system is …failing… because brief, discrete episodes of care cannot manage long-term, complex needs. Until that changes, debates about overdiagnosis will keep obscuring the real issue: building a mental health system that stays with people, instead of processing them and moving on.”

What looks like ‘overdiagnosis’ is really a system struggling to provide continuous care theconversation.com/what-looks-l...

Very disturbing, very sad, very predictable. #LongCovid #MECFS

Stanford and the Open Medicine Foundation are now estimating that 200,000,000 on earth now have #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis and/or #LongCovid. We're facing an unprecedented crisis of post-infectious diseases and desperately need more funding. PLEASE donate to M.E. Action if you can: #pwME #pwLC

Parents can get their kids vaccinated. OR they can gamble on having to take the kids to the ER. Average wait time for a hospital bed in #🇨🇦 is 22 hours. But wait, it gets worse. Some kids end up so sick with #longCOVID or #MECFS they can't go to school anymore. Or work as adults due to #disability.

~1 in 5 participants reported #LongCOVlD (LC) in a German survey in 2022. To address LC and ME/CFS—Germany launched the National Decade against Post-infectious Diseases— 500M euros from 2026 to 2036 to cover research on the mechanisms to target diagnostic and therapeutic methods. 🧵

I remember someone talking about this and thinking “thank god I only get post-exertional malaise (PEM) from sadness and anger.” 2 months later I triggered PEM from laughing too hard at Taskmaster 🫠 #MECFS is a literal thief of joy.

Despite the fact that I have #MEcfs, had flu 12/23, have had Covid 4 times (my immune system obviously weak) & am only 8 months under the age limit, my GP refused to give me the flu vaccine and lied to me about it to do so. Got it in Boots on NHS. #c4news

Since others are saying that #MEcfs patients are regularly refused the vaccine, I'll post the reasons why we are eligible. It may be of interest. justpaste.it/m08un @meassociation.org.uk @actionforme.bsky.social @thereforme.bsky.social

I emailed the CBC ombud a complaint about the Gill Deacon segment that platformed the Lightning Process and brain retraining quackery for Long COVID. Here's their response: simonspichak.beehiiv.com/p/my-complai...

The rationale behind these studies, Seltzer contests, is [that] “it presumes that the patient had never heard of exercise until a doctor told them [it] exists.” Thanks to Simon Spichak for putting this idea into print. I've said multiple times in interviews that it's the strangest part... 🧵

It is genuinely mind-boggling. Richard Horton, The Lancet's editor-in-chief, haaates patients and seems to have worked both publicly and behind closed doors to suppress criticism of the trial. The Lancet has the ethics of Andrew Wakefield on this stuff. www.healthrising.org/blog/2016/09...

"People who are performing these studies are extraordinarily ignorant, and their ignorance is dangerous." THANK YOU. FFS.

For up to half of people with #LongCOVID, activities like exercise can trigger post-exertional malaise (PEM). Yet Long COVID clinics around the world are offering exercise as treatment while dismissing its serious harms. Read more from @spichaksimon.bsky.social: bit.ly/4aaDRJW

I'll be writing about #LongCOVID trials in kids for @thesicktimes.org. With the protocol for the LDN trial now available for public comment. I wanted to hear from parents and researchers about their thoughts on the protocol. DM me to get in touch. recovercovid.org/news/recover...

CBC's flagship program doubles down on quackery, adds patient blaming rhetoric after pushback on the Gill Deacon interview. I've updated the story: simonspichak.beehiiv.com/p/cbc-flagsh... Brief summary below with Alt Text.

The same rhetoric wouldn’t fly for cancer, multiple sclerosis, or other disease so but it appears acceptable for Long COVID. Are the journalistic standards more flexible when the person being interviewed is a former colleague or when they’re trying to sell a book?

Excellent thread about the quackery that is The Lightening Process; provides information about what's involved and why it should be refuted. (As a #pwME I've had it strongly recommended to me several times by well-meaning friends.)

MECFS 🎯

Thank you to everyone who supported the ME Association during this year’s Big Give Christmas Challenge! Because of your generosity, we didn’t just meet our target – we smashed it, raising an incredible £47,051.50! Thank you! #ThankYou #pwME #MECFS #LongCovid #BigGive2025 #ChristmasChallenge

Highlights - Mark Isherwood MS shares the story of a constituent whose life was transformed by a virus, becoming severely affected and housebound with #MECFS. It has “stripped away their independence and hope”, yet support, research and funding in Wales remain minimal.

Germany invests €500M in long COVID and other post-infection syndromes Germany is among many countries facing a growing burden from long COVID. Up to 1 in 5 Germans (2022) and 1 in 7 Americans (2023) had long COVID, and long COVID is estimated to cost the global economy about US$1 trillion annually

1) The ME Association in the UK announced that it will invest £1.1m into the Rosetta Stone study. The study will compare the immune profile of ME/CFS and Long Covid patients, with 250 patients in each group.

Re "trad wives" "In ancient Rome, the proportn of plumbers that were women was 4x in the UK today. British Museum is home to a collection of historic biz cards...of lady shoemakers, toy, fan, cabinet makers, tea sellers, silver smiths.. women.. with pride." www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/society/hist...

Programmes set in one place will often film in others and pretend, but normally it's believable. Talamasca on Netflix is set in London, with lots of filming in Manchester. But, oddly, they've used some iconic Manchester locations: Castlefield basin, Sackville Gardens & the Northern Quarter. Curious.

Dolls house 53 (top left) is brilliant - I love the design. The Mickey Mouse rocker is just disturbing.

Allowing Trans people to live normal lives is not radical, just regular human decency.

BREAKING: The Lib Dems 10-minute rule bill to rejoin the customs union has just passed! After a 100-100 tie the deputy speaker followed convention and cast the deciding vote in favour. It’s unlikely to get government time so probably won't progress - but indicates strength of feeling on this issue

To the numpties who think Muslims are cancelling Christmas, Manchester's population is 23% Muslim (up from 16% in 2011) and the Christmas markets get bigger every year, covering about half the city centre and running for more than six weeks.

My local Muslim-owned supermarket is selling Christmas trees and the staff member who served me the other day wished me Happy Christmas. My son's Muslim friend at school gave him a Christmas card. The culture wars are entirely manufactured.

This bill won't progress as the Labour government won't give it the time. However, it is important. Joining the Customs Union would be good for the UK economy and has widespread public support. This adds to the pressure on the government to do the right thing.

On the one hand, some things are pretty bad for lots of people. On the other hand, if you're not living in a one-room hut with no running water, no sanitation and one bad harvest away from starvation, you're better off than 99% of all human beings who have ever lived.

Winter forest magic

Winter skies over Ripley castle in North Yorkshire #medievalsky

EU Agency for Fundamental Rights calls for stronger human rights safeguards in European lawmaking eulawlive.com/fra-calls-fo...

Wintery blue skies over the magnificent York Minster this morning #medievalsky

Peter Freeman, Chair of the Cambridge Growth Company faces city councillors this evening. cambridgetownowl.com/2025/11/19/i... "Cambridge’s rapid expansion is a political response to multiple crises. Boxy buildings with expensive abstract sculpture plonked in front. Can we avoid repeating this?"

New Home Office impact assessment finds that cutting skilled and social care visas will cost the UK up to £10 billion with a central estimate of -£5.4 billion. It would be good if this got even a fraction of the coverage devoted to the endless debate about boats, flags and Turkish barber shops

See BBC Cambs at www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

NEW BLOGPOST: "Building Safety Minister approves Beehive Redevelopment" cambridgetownowl.com/2025/12/09/b... I've been following this application (and responding to consultations/turning up to events) for ***three and a half years***. 🥺

Visual thinking: the strategy that could help you spot misinformation and manipulated images theconversation.com/visual-think...