News from France

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"Here is some context for this action because I don't think people are angry enough. This is not limited to France. It's just that the meeting [conference] was held in France and the French patients were awesome enough to do this. The project itself is (was) an EU project under

the Horizon Europe program. That means, every EU country and some affiliated countries contributed (indirectly) money to this. In the project, there were 14 research groups from 6 countries involved. And the worst is, on the surface, the project looks legit

They talk about biomarkers and pathogenic mechanisms but it became clear early on that the project leaders are part of the BPS crowd and this is what dominated the project. You can read up everything about the project on http://longcovidproject.eu

Now what really gets me. Horizon Europe grants are notoriously difficult to get (less than 10% chance of being funded). So, someone (or rather many scientists all over the world as there are a lot of peers assessing each proposal) thought this project worthy of funding.

Think about that! And now think about the fact that, in the 2026, there was a call for research into post-infectious diseases. Which included (among other points) the following: "Proposals should address most of the following research areas: ......

"Identify effective supportive rehabilitation approaches, including physical therapy, cognitive interventions, and psychological support, to enhance patient recovery, mental health and quality of life and evaluate their effectiveness."

It's a small step from this to full psychologisation. BPS is basically built into the call and if one doesn't address one of points of the call, it's basically an automatic rejection.

This is so much bigger than just France. https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/HORIZON-HLTH-2026-01-DISEASE-03

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Reddit thread:



Notable that there is almost universal support. A direct implication of the lie that opposition to psychological models, despite being widely acknowledged in the literature itself as being the majority position, is a fringe minority is that there should be a large majority who could easily drown out that fringe vocal minority.

Extending the position of our biopsychosocial overlords that most people with ME/CFS must actually support the traditional psychological model, given that only a small fringe minority opposes it, albeit loudly... where is that large majority? Why do they never, ever speak out? In fact those promoting psychological models universally make up a small fraction of posts and comments and those get heavily downvoted. Almost everywhere, except in communities that impose it as a rule, that disallow all criticism of it. Those communities are strongly faith-based.

If it were true that only a fringe minority oppose them, the opposite would happen. Social media is not made of that fringe minority. The covidlonghaulers sub-reddit is as mainstream as it gets, and we can see the same in social media, all of this is widely acknowledged, to great frustration, in the medical literature. There are many private groups that can be shown as examples of that support, and the fact that they are private is actually not in their favor, they are the actual small, fringe minorities who impose a lockstep message.

It's absurd how such an obvious lie can persist. This idea of a large but silent majority that simply does not dare to speak because it, the vast majority, keep getting shouted down by the small, fringe vocal minority who oppose psychosomatic ideology and its consequences is pure nonsense, mathematically and socially impossible. And that's before you take into account how all of this is widely acknowledged in the literature. They actually both assert the small, fringe minority and lament the fact that most patients share the same position.
 
rvallee said:
Reddit thread:



Notable that there is almost universal support. A direct implication of the lie that opposition to psychological models, despite being widely acknowledged in the literature itself as being the majority position, is a fringe minority is that there should be a large majority who could easily drown out that fringe vocal minority.

Extending the position of our biopsychosocial overlords that most people with ME/CFS must actually support the traditional psychological model, given that only a small fringe minority opposes it, albeit loudly... where is that large majority? Why do they never, ever speak out? In fact those promoting psychological models universally make up a small fraction of posts and comments and those get heavily downvoted. Almost everywhere, except in communities that impose it as a rule, that disallow all criticism of it. Those communities are strongly faith-based.

If it were true that only a fringe minority oppose them, the opposite would happen. Social media is not made of that fringe minority. The covidlonghaulers sub-reddit is as mainstream as it gets, and we can see the same in social media, all of this is widely acknowledged, to great frustration, in the medical literature. There are many private groups that can be shown as examples of that support, and the fact that they are private is actually not in their favor, they are the actual small, fringe minorities who impose a lockstep message.

It's absurd how such an obvious lie can persist. This idea of a large but silent majority that simply does not dare to speak because it, the vast majority, keep getting shouted down by the small, fringe vocal minority who oppose psychosomatic ideology and its consequences is pure nonsense, mathematically and socially impossible. And that's before you take into account how all of this is widely acknowledged in the literature. They actually both assert the small, fringe minority and lament the fact that most patients share the same position.
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Wow.

Anyone know who the lady in the white shirt that runs into his face pointing and screaming in his face to get out is? ie is it someone running the conference or seeking to be funded/working in the area 'for patients' (or is it 'to') ie on the staff side of things ?

I'm assuming the woman in a suit really isn't a staff member as someone somewhere said it was a patient ?...well she was lucky not to have / if she hasn’t harmed the female protestor (who was just stnading there) because even a well person being forced backwards whilst being held... well that's strange, inappropriate
 
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Hi everyone,

I just want to warn the ME community that Winslow Santé Publique (WSP) is not our ally—quite the opposite.

In a few words:

WSP is a French Covid cautious / long COVID organization.
They have a long history of denying ME and harassing pwME, french ME organizations and doctors/researchers who dare to mention ME in the context of long COVID.

Elle_carnitine did a great job summarizing WSP in this X thread (it's in French, you can use X translation tool)



According to WSP, the cause of Long COVID is the persistence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the body; this viral persistence explain all the physical sequelae and illnesses triggered by a SARS-CoV-2 infection. In their view, Long COVID is a "broad but SINGLE entity" that would be resolved if the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be eliminated from the body. Therefore, ME has nothing in common with Long COVID, as the etiology is different.
 
MaudSac said:
Hi everyone,

I just want to warn the ME community that Winslow Santé Publique (WSP) is not our ally—quite the opposite.

In a few words:

WSP is a French Covid cautious / long COVID organization.
They have a long history of denying ME and harassing pwME, french ME organizations and doctors/researchers who dare to mention ME in the context of long COVID.

Elle_carnitine did a great job summarizing WSP in this X thread (it's in French, you can use X translation tool)



According to WSP, the cause of Long COVID is the persistence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the body; this viral persistence explain all the physical sequelae and illnesses triggered by a SARS-CoV-2 infection. In their view, Long COVID is a "broad but SINGLE entity" that would be resolved if the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be eliminated from the body. Therefore, ME has nothing in common with Long COVID, as the etiology is different.
Click to expand...

Oh that’s interesting, thank you for sharing.
At this point I saw this particular speech as a protest against pseudoscience.
 
MaudSac said:
Hi everyone,

I just want to warn the ME community that Winslow Santé Publique (WSP) is not our ally—quite the opposite.

In a few words:

WSP is a French Covid cautious / long COVID organization.
They have a long history of denying ME and harassing pwME, french ME organizations and doctors/researchers who dare to mention ME in the context of long COVID.

Elle_carnitine did a great job summarizing WSP in this X thread (it's in French, you can use X translation tool)



According to WSP, the cause of Long COVID is the persistence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the body; this viral persistence explain all the physical sequelae and illnesses triggered by a SARS-CoV-2 infection. In their view, Long COVID is a "broad but SINGLE entity" that would be resolved if the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be eliminated from the body. Therefore, ME has nothing in common with Long COVID, as the etiology is different.
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Thank You - @MaudSac

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MaudSac said:
Their protest was great, Lemogne and Ranque are the main proponents of (B)PS in France for ME and LC. But, the hype WSP got from the ME community is very disturbing knowing their ME denial and pwME harassment.
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Urghh. Such a shame. Reminds me of a similar group in the US — Long COVID Action Project — who has done some great long covid advocacy projects but sees ME/CFS in a very negative light almost like pwME are “leeching” on Long COVID research, they believe all long covid is viral persistence equivalent to AIDS, and there’s been lots of harassment and even reports of death threats on social media…

I haven’t heard much at all from them since I left Xitter so maybe they faded into irrelevance. One can hope.
 
SNT Gatchaman said:
Speaking truth to power, while his hands are shaking. Garner walking out at 0:30, returns following Sharpe at 1:20-2:00.
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Perhaps he had to protect himself from unhelpful thought to prevent a relapse of his fear of activity and death..
MaudSac said:
According to WSP, the cause of Long COVID is the persistence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the body; this viral persistence explain all the physical sequelae and illnesses triggered by a SARS-CoV-2 infection. In their view, Long COVID is a "broad but SINGLE entity" that would be resolved if the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be eliminated from the body. Therefore, ME has nothing in common with Long COVID, as the etiology is different.
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If that’s the case, it’s a real shame.
 
rvallee said:
For some reason proponents of psychobehavioral models of Long Covid Lemogne and Ranque are participating in a Long Covid conference in Paris. Protesters have shown in person and in the online portion of the event. According to the poster, the conference was organized by Lemogne and Ranque using EU funds.
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Ranque is the lead author of Internal medicine at the crossroads of long COVID diagnosis and management (2025)

as with other FSDs [Functional Somatic Disorders], patients with long COVID are usually reluctant to be managed by mental health care specialists, given the very physical nature of their presentation
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Noteworthy, existing national management guidelines for long COVID also praise for such a holistic approach, modeled on existing recommendations for FSD […] Indeed, such an approach is recommended for several other complex conditions without any detectable organic lesion, such as fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome.
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Both graduated physical activity and cognitive behavioral therapy proved efficient in individuals with long COVID. […] However, if the exercise intensity is initially too high, the occurrence of post exertional malaises can reinforce the fear of exercising. […] Such programs include the delivery of rational cognitive explanations for the symptoms and support for behavioral changes tailored to the patient. Many patients with very disabling long COVID, who benefited from this type of psycho-corporal treatment, have also reported their recovery story on the Norwegian site recoverynorway.org.
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The Norwegian research news site Forskning.no has an article today with professor Silje Reme who was present and described how unsafe she felt. She criticises the lack of security at the conference.

A few years ago she organised a conference about ME and claimed in the media that they had had the police on stand by in case of activists.

quotes from the article which is titled "Activists stormed research conference. - I was scared":

– It was a stressful and confusing situation, says Professor Silje Endresen Reme from the University of Oslo.
She was attending a conference on long covid in Paris, when activists stormed the stage.
A man with a mask and a cane took over the microphone and began an appeal. A woman followed.
– It felt unsafe, Reme tells forskning.no.

...

“The biomedical model – one disease, one cause, one treatment – is very effective for some diseases. That’s why it’s so popular with both patients and doctors,” said organizer and professor Cédric Lemogne, a psychiatrist at Hôtel-Dieu Hospital in Paris. “The approach we recommend doesn’t have as much appeal, but it’s the only one that has shown results to date.”
 
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Kalliope said:
“The biomedical model – one disease, one cause, one treatment – is very effective for some diseases. That’s why it’s so popular with both patients and doctors,” said organizer and professor Cédric Lemogne, a psychiatrist at Hôtel-Dieu Hospital in Paris. “The approach we recommend doesn’t have as much appeal, but it’s the only one that has shown results to date.”
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Orwell would be proud.
 
Kalliope said:
The Norwegian research news site Forskning.no has an article today with professor Silje Reme who was present and described how unsafe she felt. She criticises the lack of security at the conference.

A few years ago she organised a conference about ME and claimed in the media that they had had the police on stand by in case of activists.

quotes from the article which is titled "Activists stormed research conference. - I was scared":

– It was a stressful and confusing situation, says Professor Silje Endresen Reme from the University of Oslo.
She was attending a conference on long covid in Paris, when activists stormed the stage.
A man with a mask and a cane took over the microphone and began an appeal. A woman followed.
– It felt unsafe, Reme tells forskning.no.
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Oh no, they had to hear people voice their discontent about the harm they are causing, which isn't anywhere close to 1% of the harm they are causing. How will they possibly recover? This making us out to be crazed lunatics is by far the most malicious lie these people push. In most circumstances, doing this much harm to real people would be much more difficult, but it's always popular to bully us and lie about it.
 
“The biomedical model – one disease, one cause, one treatment – is very effective for some diseases. That’s why it’s so popular with both patients and doctors,” said organizer and professor Cédric Lemogne, a psychiatrist at Hôtel-Dieu Hospital in Paris. “The approach we recommend doesn’t have as much appeal, but it’s the only one that has shown results to date.”
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This isn't even the biomedical model, there is no such thing as "the biomedical model". What they refer to is medical science, and it has no requirements for "one disease, one cause, one treatment". In fact it's frustratingly not that simple.

I hate the lies so much. None of this would have any influence if they couldn't just blatantly lie.
 


AI Translation​

Two years I've been waiting.
Three to four years of waiting.
It's been a year and a half.
Three years.
Fifteen days to die.
Three to four years of waiting in pain centers. That's what makes you want to die.
Emergency department: after four losses of consciousness, they left me for 10 hours without anything to drink. There are not enough caregivers. That's what makes you want to die.
I've been waiting almost two years for a wheelchair my size. That's what makes me want to die.
The 2005 law still hasn't been implemented; that's what makes you want to die.
My friend had to move back in with her parents because she can't feed herself. He is bedridden and she has no help. That's what makes you want to die.
My sister is in pain; she wants a medical appointment and treatment, but it takes too long. And that makes her want to die.
Fifty percent of patients who need palliative care support do not have access to it in France. That's what makes you want to die.
It's been a year and a half that I can't wash myself without help and the MDPH refuses to grant me home assistance. That's what makes you want to die.
It takes three years for a court appeal; that's three years without help. That's what makes you want to die.
It takes three years to receive the AAH (disability allowance). That's what makes you want to die.
The MDPH did not grant my friend the assistance she needs. That led her to do a Haï. That's what makes her want to die.
France has been condemned multiple times by the European Court of Human Rights. That's what makes you want to die. Yes.
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