The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences' report on long covid

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Kungliga Vetenskapsakademin) published a report on long covid today.

The portrayal of ME in the report is very problematic, and I feel it needs to be challenged.

Postakut Covid-19-syndrom – långtidskomplikationer av Covid-19
https://covidforeningen.se/kungliga-vetenskapsakademin-publicerar-rapport-om-langtidscovid/

Summary/comments by the Swedish Covid Association:

Here's what the report says about ME:

I feel very strongly that this problematic portrayal of ME needs to be challenged. Would anybody here be up to writing a comment/letter to the academy? Please? (I'm too ill to do it myself.)

 

Sten Helmfrid is on twitter and might be able to help.

 

@Obermann Is there any chance you will be writing a comment or letter to the Academy about this? Do you know if the RME or the RME Scientific Advisory Board is taking action on this?

 

"it has been argued"

I'm pretty sure no mistranslation can overcome the absurdity of this position. HIV denial has also been argued plenty. Many things have, it may just about be the weakest form of non-evidence there is. It's even lower than "are more likely to be due to X because of [arglebargle]", which is already at a solid 0.

This is really an incredible level of incompetence and impetuous opinion-having. It has absolutely no place in any serious discussion of anything, frankly. There is simply no possible good outcome out of people being allowed to just arbitrarily redefine things as they want in the context of a profession.

And yet nothing matters and it won't even have any consequences for years, if at all. Well, accountability consequences anyway, as it will have plenty of bad consequences, we already that for a fact.

 

Request sent to Sten via Twitter

https://twitter.com/user/status/1387383320510705664

 

@dave30th , perhaps something you can take on?

 

As @rvallee points out re "it has been argued," as if it's fact. What about the opposition? They apparently don't get a say in this. Giving complete credence to one side due to perhaps the more favored political government coffer position, is standard practice, with as usual ongoing tragic consequences.

 

"It has been argued" in an official document of sorts, can slide by unnoticed. It becomes "fact", when there is no evidence whatsoever for such a position.

It has been argued that the moon is made of blue cheese. Doesn't make it so.

 

Tried to balance the view on twitter. Their twitter account is not very active, but hopefully some will se it and make it more visible.

Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien tweet: https://twitter.com/user/status/1386943748140056576

 

Thanks for bringing the report from the Royal Academy of Sciences to my attention. I am afraid that I have had a long and bad relapse in my ME/CFS. I am trying to return to work and currently work 25% from home over VPN connection. I have very limited excess energy, and cannot at the moment engage in any more activities apart from some daily tweets. For that reason, I must refrain from commenting on the report. I don't know if RME is planning a response.

 

An argument that has not been proven is an "allegation." If an author feels compelled to include unproven arguments, they really should say "It has been alleged" to make that clear.

 

A member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences' expert group is quoted in this news article (including a video, 1 minute long, in Swedish):

Professorn om postcovid: ”Sjukvården har misslyckats med patientgruppen”
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/v...dscovid-sjukvarden-har-misslyckats-med-varden

Google Translate, English

What is the expert group's current assignment?

ETA: The National Board of Health and Welfare published their updated long covid statistics yesterday (24 February), available to download here.