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As chair of the Royal College of GPs, @ClareGerada promoted graded exercise therapy as a safe and effective treatment for ME/CFS. This approach is now being applied to #LongCovid https://twitter.com/trishgreenhalgh/status/1314817288659496960
In this video Dr Gerada instructs GPs to tell ME/CFS patients to push through their symptoms and continue to exercise twice a day (before and after work) even they feel rotten and absolutely exhausted:
In a recent letter to the BMA, doctors with #LongCovid ( @amyismall) said they had “learned from the experience of people with ME/CFS – particularly around the need to ‘pace’ rather than attempt graded exercise”: https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/doctors-with-long-covid
Dr Gerada and her husband, Professor Sir Simon Wessely, were hugely influential in shaping NHS services for ME/CFS, which Professor @PaulGarnerWoof recently referred to in the BMJ as “institutionally prejudiced”: https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/06/23/paul-garner-covid-19-at-14-weeks-phantom-speed-cameras-unknown-limits-and-harsh-penalties/
A recent Nature editorial echoed these views, stating: “It is crucial that those with [ #LongCovid] are listened to in a way that, tragically, people with ME/CFS were not.” https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02796-2
If @ClareGerada now accepts that she was wrong about ME/CFS, I hope she will acknowledge her mistakes and apologise. In the meantime those taking a lead on #LongCovid might be wise to temper their praise for her services to clinical standards and social justice.
