Proust on the impossibility of intelligible experience without the application of the concept of cause: “it appeared a thing without cause, incomprehensible, a thing truly dark”
Chloé de Canson
@chloedecanson.bsky.social
Formerly assistant professor of philosophy • bedbound since 2022 with severe myalgic encephalomyelitis, a type of long COVID • philosophy of science, epistemology incl. social, and their history • chloedecanson.net • 🇵🇸
Marcel Proust playing air guitar on a tennis racket appreciation moment
What it feels like trying to do history of philosophy
We would all be better off if infrastructure was updated to provide cleaner indoor air in public places, using technology that is already well understood and known to be safe-- it's just not happening.
My brilliant friend Lola Germs has created a truly exceptional video essay on the history of the science of airborne disease transmission The video has it all: extremely rigorous science studies, bizarre and enthralling visuals, and a strong case for using existing technology to clean indoor air
Lola Germs@lolagerms.bsky.social · 2mo agoMy first post on bluesky to announce the premiere of my upcoming feature length airborne science history extravaganza! Sunday June 21 8pm CEST 2pm EDT 11am PDT youtu.be/yuXVu595DBI?... There will be a watch party on YT with a live stream afterwards :-)
#MECFS question: Does anyone know of any document by an ME charity/organization/clinic that mentions the fact that people often already experience some symptoms before they fully develop ME? This could include the 'multiple hit' theory for instance.
I’ve reached the three year mark since the last time I was able to stand up. Three years fully bedbound. Hard to put into words how profoundly long COVID and ME have altered my life
Some stats from 2025. Average number of invites issued per paper was 6. The highest number of invites per paper was 17 (down on previous years, where it usually strays into the 20s). Securing referees takes about as long as referees take writing their reports.
Public health officials and the media are communicating as if there were only two possible outcomes to hantavirus infection: death and full recovery. This is despite already existing evidence that hantavirus, like many other viruses including COVID, has severe post-acute sequelae.
Miles W. Griffis@mileswgriffis.bsky.social · 3mo ago🦠 As the media discusses Hantavirus, they continue to ignore the risk of chronic disease, learning little from lessons Long COVID. A 2005 study found "survivors" had extreme fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, kidney issues, and more at least five years post-infection. cdn.mdedge.com/files/s3fs-p...
The case for routine patient review in long COVID research www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... Screenshot from latest Science for ME weekly update #LongCovid
Chloé de Canson@chloedecanson.bsky.social · 4mo agoMany Long COVID scientists fail to meaningfully draw on the insights of patient-researchers. In our Comment for @thelancetinfdis.bsky.social, we propose a solution: make all Long COVID papers undergo pre-publication patient review. 1/
1) Trigger warning: suicide This paper analyzed 505 entries on the National CFIDS Foundation memorial list. These were people with ME/CFS who passed away. The messages summarize their life, illness and struggles. The researchers grouped these into several recurring themes.
“There is a city nearby that we hide from view. Its people are of all ages, ethnicities & classes. What unites them is a disease: all are diagnosed w/ myalgic encephalomyelitis. We hide them there because we don’t know where else to put them. Like a plague village, we have no plans to treat them…”
valebodi.bsky.social@valebodi.bsky.social · 4mo agoFYI The “sabotaging” medical scandal of #ME/CFS, please read & share Prof. @cgatist.bsky.social’s great article: Ignored, blamed, and sometimes left to die – a leading expert in ME explains the origins of a modern medical scandal
New paper in @thelancetinfdis.bsky.social from PLRC by @chloedecanson.bsky.social, @leticiasaurus.bsky.social, @chromatowski.bsky.social / @romatowski.bsky.social and Gina Assaf: "The case for routine patient review in #LongCovid research.” 🧵1/11
The case for routine patient review in long COVID research
Long COVID is an infection-associated chronic condition that occurs after SARS-CoV-2 infection and can lead to sometimes severe disability.1–3 In early 2024, long COVID had already affected 400 millio...
thelancet.com
"Long COVID received 14% of its disability commensurate funding... ME/CFS is the most under-funded condition, receiving <1% of its YLD [years lived with disability] proportionate funding." Plus the LC disability weight of 0.21 likely underestimates its burden. www.nature.com/articles/s43...
Long COVID disability burden in US adults - Communications Medicine
Bonuck et al. quantified the disability burden of Long COVID in U.S. adults using years lived with disability and compared its NIH funding to that of 68 other conditions by sex predominance. Long COVI...
nature.com
Those researchers who routinely do patient involvement know the value of the insights of the people who actually have the disease To enable involvement of pwLC at all stages of research @longcovidsupport.bsky.social offer a Research Involvement Consultancy service. www.longcovid.org/research/res...
Long Covid Support (@longcovidsupport.bsky.social)
UK charity dedicated to supporting people with Long Covid • Support • Research • Advocacy • Education • www.longcovid.org https://linktr.ee/longcovidsupport 📧info@longcovid.org
longcovidsupport.bsky.social
Chloé de Canson@chloedecanson.bsky.social · 4mo agoMany Long COVID scientists fail to meaningfully draw on the insights of patient-researchers. In our Comment for @thelancetinfdis.bsky.social, we propose a solution: make all Long COVID papers undergo pre-publication patient review. 1/
Thrilled we have this new Comment out in @thelancetinfdis.bsky.social, arguing that to give Long COVID scientists more incentive to incorporate patient expertise throughout the research process, LC papers should all be subject to pre-publication review by patients. Free to read w/registration!
The case for routine patient review in long COVID research
Long COVID is an infection-associated chronic condition that occurs after SARS-CoV-2 infection and can lead to sometimes severe disability.1–3 In early 2024, long COVID had already affected 400 millio...
thelancet.com
Chloé de Canson@chloedecanson.bsky.social · 4mo agoMany Long COVID scientists fail to meaningfully draw on the insights of patient-researchers. In our Comment for @thelancetinfdis.bsky.social, we propose a solution: make all Long COVID papers undergo pre-publication patient review. 1/
New comment The case for routine patient review in long COVID research www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
The case for routine patient review in long COVID research
Long COVID is an infection-associated chronic condition that occurs after SARS-CoV-2 infection and can lead to sometimes severe disability.1–3 In early 2024, long COVID had already affected 400 millio...
thelancet.com
Many Long COVID scientists fail to meaningfully draw on the insights of patient-researchers. In our Comment for @thelancetinfdis.bsky.social, we propose a solution: make all Long COVID papers undergo pre-publication patient review. 1/
Today is Long COVID awareness day. What does the data show about Long COVID in 2026? How common is it, how bad is it, what does it consist in? The Patient-Led Research Collaborative has put together a fact sheet based on the most recent data. Cannot recommend highly enough!
Patient-Led Research Collaborative@patientled.bsky.social · 5mo agoFor #LongCovid Awareness Day, we’re releasing the 2026 Long Covid Fact Sheet! This is a list of key statistics about LC, using recent data to reflect contemporary risks. We hope this will be useful for journalists, policymakers, patients, & others! /1
The Dutch state has forbidden the use of its funding for research into patented drugs for ME, because it doesn’t want to pay to treat us if it’s not dirt cheap. Yet another blow for the myth of state funding neutrality in biomedical research #philsci
Tom Kindlon@tomkindlon.bsky.social · 5mo ago🧵 Disappointing information about ME/CFS treatment trial fund in the Netherlands #MEcfs #CFS #PwME #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #CVS #MECVS 1/
New on the Archive: de Canson, Chloé (2026) Diseases as Homeostatic Property Clusters. [Preprint] https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/28478/
My paper on disease has been accepted at Philosophy of Medicine! I argue that diseases form homeostatic property clusters: their underlying pathomechanisms cause clustering in their symptomatology, biological signature, response to treatments, and prognosis philpapers.org/rec/CANDAH
Chloé de Canson, Diseases as Homeostatic Property Clusters - PhilPapers
Several philosophers have recently drawn on property cluster accounts of natural kinds to argue that individual diseases form natural kinds. According to them, diseases have a super-explanatory proper...
philpapers.org
Charles S. Peirce on William James: “he so concrete, so living; I a mere table of contents, so abstract, a very snarl of twine”
“HIV taught us how chronic viral infections can affect the body long after initial illness, and how important it is to involve patients in that research,” said @michaelpelusomd.bsky.social. “Applying those lessons to #LongCovid has helped us accelerate discovery” www.ucsf.edu/news/2026/01...
Solving Long COVID: How Decades of HIV Research Paved the Way
Discover how UCSF is leading the charge in Long COVID research, uncovering key findings that advance our understanding of the condition. UCSF researchers have adapted innovative tools and methodologie...
ucsf.edu
Alice James’s diary entries on the suicides of random people
The meaning of words is to be decided not by their use, usefulness, or history, but by their commercial benefit to the most powerful lobby groups. I have a recipe for almond milk in a cookbook from 1226. It has been used as a term in English for hundreds of years. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Oatly banned from using word ‘milk’ to market plant-based products in UK
Supreme court makes ruling after Swedish firm’s long-running battle with trade association Dairy UK
theguardian.com
It's ironic to see a discipline care **so much** about unbiasedness (causal inference!) at the level of a single test but then have a research production system and culture that is basically a ferocious bias generation machine. This is not good.
Alice James told her brother Henry James that, could she have her close friend Katherine Loring “quietly and uninterruptedly for a year to relieve her of all responsibility, she would get well”. Alice was diagnosed with hysteria and Henry cruelly surmised that her illness was a ploy to keep K close