George Monbiot on ME/CFS, PACE, BPS and Long Covid

Links to posts linking to articles/videos:
Jan 2021 article in the Guardian
Apr 2021 article in the Guardian
Jul 2021 interview video



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Not sure if these have been posted in other threads but I think they are significant so I’m posting them in their own thread. For those who don’t know, this is what Wikipedia says about George Monbiot (who has over 393,000 followers on Twitter):

https://twitter.com/user/status/1347152558087925762

https://twitter.com/user/status/1347154824111009792

https://twitter.com/user/status/1347206885804535814


https://twitter.com/user/status/1347482819518410753


https://twitter.com/user/status/1347512865079570434


George has also been asking for links to info on PACE etc. He’s had a lot of helpful replies, and @dave30th has tweeted and emailed him.

Like Dave, I have emailed George in the past to try to get him to write about the SMC’s bias towards ME/CFS as George has previously been critical of the SMC on other issues (see http://www.lobbywatch.org/lm_george_monbiot.html). He didn’t reply to me then but it’s good to see him lending us his voice now.

 

Update:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1347534697161756674

https://twitter.com/user/status/1347540458491301894

 

George is a great journalist with huge reach. He is mostly involved with Double Down News (also very good) these days, so an article may appear there.

 

Is anyone still skeptical that long covid would help ME/CFS gain visibility and credibility?

 

Very pleased to see this. Great to have another person from the Guardian willing to actually listen and I really respect George Monbiot as a journalist.

I'm not sure it will result in more funding or support long term but I do think it will help more people understand ME/CFS better which is a small win.

 

I've just shared some of his tweets on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TomKindlonMECFS/ in case anyone wants to share them on Facebook

 

It is helping but we only have a window of opportunity. People are fearful of catching the virus now but once the danger has passed they will look at long covid patients the way they looked at ME/CFS patients, people who are not as strong as them and just need to pull themselves together.

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1347540458491301894

 

Someone pointed this out to me earlier on.

Invasion of the entryists: How did a cultish political network become the public face of the scientific establishment?
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2003/dec/09/highereducation.uk2

Given that he wrote this quite some time ago, hopefully someone has mentioned the SMC to him on Twitter.

 

Yes, see tweet above. I also sent this:
https://twitter.com/user/status/1347238726703976456


(Link for anyone who can’t access Twitter: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jroffc18kizqzzn/fiona_fox_ME_RCP_with_links.pdf?dl=0)

I’ve also emailed him about these issues. He will have so much info now the challenge will be deciding what to include in a 900 word article. Maybe he could be persuaded to write a book.

 

Jury's out, will have to wait and see.

 

What appears to be happening is that patients are naturally recovering and the intervention is being given credit instead.

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1347886577318551553

 

Has George Monbiot shared that he is suffering from long covid? (Just curious.)

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1347511305570316291

 

aha, thank you. That's good, I was hoping he wasn't unwell himself.

 

I admit that I'm slightly worried that Monbiot will have the best intentions but make some mistake due to the complexity of the topic. Hopefully he'll send the article to an independent expert for review before the publication.

 

I think this is a difficult topic for a columnist to cover after a couple of weeks reading... and I have massive worries about the sort of 'expert' the UK Guardian would suggest.

 

But at the same time we have been highly critical (correctly so) about the lack of, or extremely misguided, coverage in the mainstream UK media. So we have to run with this, albeit the noted concerns are very valid.

Is it necessarily for the Guardian to designate which experts a journalist can consult? Or can a journalist still be a journalist and do their own research for who to consult?

And yes, to expect someone to get everything right after just a few weeks to "tune in" would be unrealistic. The hope would be that for anything they get wrong, they do not get it seriously wrong. Would @dave30th be able to assist here?

Might just possibly mark a change in UK media coverage ... long shot I know.