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Elke Hausmann

@drelke.bsky.social

German, English, Spanish Sociology, Medicine, General Practice

1627 Posts583 Follower 531 Folgt

Elke Hausmann @drelke.bsky.social · 10h ago

So "embrace Mediterranean life". But without the wine, which, as another Telegraph column laments, is becoming "smoke tainted" by all those fires triggered by some unmentioned and mysterious force. And without the food, whose production, thanks to the drought and heatwaves, is at grave risk in southern Europe, as it is here. And without your lovely gite, which might have been incinerated. Or the lush green landscape, also lost to the flames. Or the balmy summer temperatures, now replaced by murderous heat. Oh go on then, you know what I really mean: embrace death.

George Monbiot@georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 11h ago

My column on how capital becomes a death cult. Faced with a choice between profit and human life, the radical right chooses profit. Then it tries to persuade us that mass death is what we want. It's the new phase of climate denial: accept your fate, earthlings. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Elke Hausmann @drelke.bsky.social · 12h ago

#LongCovid

Some thoughts on calling myself a patient, and talking about patient advocacy. For me, saying that I am a patient does not mean that the whole rest of my identity is erased.
It means that I have a genuine medical condition that affects every aspect of my life. If I am just a person with Long Covid', in my view that minimises the impact the disease has on my life. I am a patient demanding research into my disease, demanding the same treatment that patients living with other recognised chronic diseases get from the NHS.

Maybe one difference is that many people with AIDS looked physically unwell, even skeletal, which increased healthy people's fear of them and their disease, especially when it was less understood, making emphasising their personhood crucial to fight stigma.
Many of us with Long Covid look well and people don't even believe we have a disease, so in that case emphasising that we are patients takes on a different note, especially in a climate where a multitude of wellness influencers and rehabilitation enthusiasts are claiming that we are not really sick, but just haven't done enough work on ourselves to become our optimal selves again.

betsy ladyzhets 😷@betsyladyzhets.bsky.social · yesterday

Today @thesicktimes.org: Actor and playwright Elizabeth Pugh argues that Long COVID organizations should use person-first language, drawing on her own experience with HIV/AIDS activism in the 1990s. thesicktimes.org/2026/08/04/t...

Nettlecake @nettlecake.bsky.social · 2d ago

Brilliant letter from Stuart Thompson to Jeremy Clarkson about his comments that benefit claimants should write weekly thank you letters to tax payers detailing how they spend their benefits each week.

Tom Kindlon @tomkindlon.bsky.social · 2d ago

Skeletal muscle properties in long COVID and ME/CFS differ from those induced by bed rest Screenshot from latest Science for ME weekly update #MEcfs #LongCovid

Skeletal muscle properties in long COVID and ME/CFS differ from those induced by bed rest — Charlton et al
"Long-term (60 days) bed rest induced severe muscle atrophy, which was not observed in patients" "Instead, both patient groups displayed a lower proportion of type I fibers, whereas only patients with ME/CFS exhibited lower capillary-to-fiber ratios and type I specific atrophy." "the lower oxidative phosphorylation capacity in both patient groups did not correlate with VO2max, in contrast to bed rest participants, suggesting that physiological impairments distinct from inactivity drive reduced exercise capacity in patients."
Article | Thread

Tom Kindlon@tomkindlon.bsky.social · last wk.

Press release on this interesting Dutch research study: "New research: muscle problems in post-COVID and ME/CFS cannot be explained by prolonged inactivity" Google translation: www-amsterdamumc-org.translate.goog/nl/vandaag/n... #MEcfs #LongCovid #PwME #CFS #ME #MyalgicE

Prof Nisreen Alwan @nisreenalwan.bsky.social · 2d ago

#LongCovid is not a ‘subject’ to dispute. It’s a health condition that changes people’s lives. Definitions can evolve & that’s not an excuse to dismiss the illness itself. Diagnostic criteria for diabetes have repeatedly changed over time but no one takes u seriously if you say diabetes in disputed!

Lewis Goodall@lewisgoodall.com · 4d ago

Long covid is a disputed subject, at best.

Prof Nisreen Alwan @nisreenalwan.bsky.social · 2d ago

I’m intrigued by the recent resurgence of the ‘Long Covid is not real’ nonsense we saw back in 20/21. The refusal to learn is one thing, but the dismissal of reality is another. Long Covid is too painful, too common & too present in many people’s lives to be denied. The story is hard to rewrite.

Elke Hausmann @drelke.bsky.social · yesterday

If you think #LongCovid is just a few minor symptoms you can learn to live with, and move on with life as you’ve always known it, read this. One man‘s story. There are MANY of us.

Post nicht verfügbar.

Elke Hausmann @drelke.bsky.social · yesterday

7 years on - and this still feels very current, maybe even more so ☹️ #LongCovid #ME

Whether it is ME patients or another target, huge swathes of the media have normalised hatred and suspicion of minorities for years.
Every editor who commissions it, reads it, and decides to go ahead and print it is not only complicit, but actively responsible in facilitating it. I am tired. Tired of all it. We all should be.

Frances Ryan@francesryan.bsky.social · 2d ago

As Rod Liddle has died, I notice this column I wrote in 2019 about his attacks on people with M.E. is on the most read again. Rebekah Brooks, of News UK, described Liddle today as “provocative”. In reality, he spread lies about very sick people for cash. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Tom Kindlon @tomkindlon.bsky.social · 3d ago

The Biopsychosocial Model by @longcovidadvoc.com www.longcovidadvoc.com/post/bps From Science for ME weekly update: A thorough & critical look at the origin of the biopsychosocial model & its devastating consequences. The article has an excellent visual summary of its key points #mecfs #longcovid

101: 03. The Biopsychosocial Model

To clearly name the problem: The term is accepted in medicine as a common-sense position that on the surface makes a great deal of sense. Yet, there is often a hidden psychosomatic interpretation that...

longcovidadvoc.com

Elke Hausmann @drelke.bsky.social · 2d ago

#LongCovid #ME

We have the common-sense
interpretation. This is where the patient (of course) consists of interconnected factors: biological, psychological and social. Often taught in medical schools as a three-legged stool. That doctors should look beyond the patient as a biological machine, and often accepted without critique as it sounds compassionate, obvious and inclusive.
Yet, we also have the original, otten forgotten, foundation of where the model was formed: the psychosomatic.
This is where Engels and others smoothed BPS labelling over a very old hysterical bottle. Psychological and social factors take on causative force, producing symptoms but not necessarily disease. And behavioural change is given agency to reverse symptoms.

The critical issue is the conflation and mixing of these two interpretations.
When a patient objects to the second, psychogenic model, the first, holistic model is used as a defence and ruse.
This means critique of psychogenic causation gets reframed as opposition to holistic care or claims of stigmatisation.
Most clinicians believe they are endorsing the first statement while unknowingly inheriting assumptions from the second.

Long Covid Advocacy@longcovidadvoc.com · last wk.

No.03 in our 101 series covers The Biopsychosocial Model. A vital topic as much of our clinical care is BPS. Lack of progress in care, research & treatment rests on this theory. Yet, it's a complex topic, so we have created an accessible article AND a 1-page visual summary. Link 👇

$Cover image for a series titled "101: 03. The Biopsychosocial Model." Against a textured background in shades of yellow, orange and ochre, a large cracked surface dominates the image, with deep black fissures radiating from a central break, suggesting fracture or instability. In the upper left stands an engraved-style illustration of Lady Justice, blindfolded and holding a sword in one hand and balanced scales in the other. In the lower right is a small line drawing of a human head in profile with the brain illustrated in intricate detail. The title appears in dark blue text over the orange centre of the image. The overall design evokes themes of justice, critical examination and a model under strain.$

Elke Hausmann @drelke.bsky.social · 2d ago

#LongCovid #ME

Solving the harm for many patients means a radical cultural and pragmatic change in the NHS where this clinical model is abandoned and replaced by specialist medical care. Non-contested diseases such as Parkinson's are typically led by consultants and specialist nurses, with access to investigation, diagnosis and medical treatment across the spectrum of severity. Patients with ME/CFS, Long Covid and related conditions deserve the same standard of specialist medical
care.

Long Covid Advocacy@longcovidadvoc.com · last wk.

Mark Ungrin @mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 4d ago

Long COVID is "disputed" in the same sense that evolution is "disputed" - i.e. not disputed by anyone with any scientific credibility. Pretending otherwise just happens to be attractive to the Dunning-Kruger brigade whose negligence caused it by allowing COVID to get out of control.

Mark Ungrin@mark-ungrin.bsky.social · 2y ago

From populists on the right, but also from establishment figures desperate to bury their responsibility, there's an ongoing push to bury the harms of COVID. Long COVID alone costs 7M life-years (QALYs) and on the order of a trillion dollars a year in the OECD. www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issue...

1. While a precise estimate of long COVID prevalence is still emerging, current research suggests that up to 10-30% of people who contracted COVID-19 exhibit symptoms corresponding to long COVID in the weeks and months following acute infection. Across OECD countries at a minimum, this would represent upwards of 39 million people who had or are currently living with long COVID. Sustainable investment in long COVID research is crucial to inform health and social care resource allocation. As the evidence base grows, developing standardised measures of symptoms and functional impact to support a more precise definition that enables the disaggregation of levels of long COVID severity could be useful to better understand the condition, assess its impact, and to tailor care and support.
3. Long COVID can severely limit people’s ability to undertake basic activities of daily life and can dramatically hamper quality of life. More than 7 million quality-adjusted life years may be lost annually across OECD countries due to the condition. Studies from across a range of OECD countries suggest that one sixth to more than one-third of people may have persistent cognitive symptoms, often lasting more than 12 weeks, after a COVID-19 infection.
4. Even conservative estimates of long COVID prevalence would indicate that long COVID may be reducing the workforce by nearly 3 million workers across OECD countries, amounting to an economic cost of at least $141 billion USD from lost wages alone. Moreover, even among those who were able to return to the labour force, a significant proportion reported needing to reduce the number of hours they worked, compared to before their infection.

ME Association @meassociation.org.uk · last wk.

1/3 NHS England’s ME/CFS e-Learning Modules FOI Results reveal lack of uptake In January 2026, and repeated in June, Lucibee [social media username], an advocate for people with ME/CFS submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to NHS England

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: An image of healthcare professionals. Title: NHS England’s ME/CFS e-Learning Modules FOI Results reveal lack of uptake. The MEA's H4ME and ME Association logos (left-hand side)

Adam @abrokenbattery.bsky.social · 2d ago

It’s Severe ME Awareness Week. Here are some highlights from the explainer video on severe and very severe #MECFS I made in 2021. Experts discuss the lack of medical care, swallowing difficulties and tube feeding often being delayed until it becomes life threatening.

Jon Douglas @atranscendedman.bsky.social · 5d ago

University of Liverpool researchers show lab made fibrinaloid microclots have classic amyloid staining. These hard to dissolve clots can form on cell debris and may impair small vessel blood flow in Long COVID. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Uncovering the hidden biology of fibrinaloid microclot complexes in complex, inflammatory diseases | QRB Discovery | Cambridge Core

Uncovering the hidden biology of fibrinaloid microclot complexes in complex, inflammatory diseases - Volume 7

cambridge.org

Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 5d ago

Much as I love the News Agents their discussion on Covid was ill-informed and misleading. christinapagel.substack.com/p/we-are-lea...

We are learning the wrong lesson from Covid school closures

A response to yesterday's News Agents podcast...

christinapagel.substack.com

The News Agents@thenewsagents.co.uk · 5d ago

“I’m glad we live in a country that is deferential to expertise - but at times in the pandemic, that did go too far.” “I’m not sure school closures were a price worth paying.” Lewis on how ‘legitimate questions’ have emerged - and should be asked - about how we handled Covid.

Long Covid Support @longcovidsupport.bsky.social · 5d ago

📣 New paper out on Long Covid and work from REACT Study. Based on over 45,000 participants: 🔷 4.3% had unresolved Long Covid 🔷 An additional 2.3% had resolved Long Covid 🔷 Participants with unresolved Long Covid had 38% lower odds of being in paid work, & 4x higher odds of having to change hours

Elke Hausmann @drelke.bsky.social · 4d ago

#LongCovid

This idea that we could have simply kept schools open, without changing anything else, and all would have been fine is just not supported by the evidence.

Prof Christina Pagel@chrischirp.bsky.social · 5d ago

🧵On @thenewsagents.co.uk yesterday, school closures and the lab leak theory were offered as two examples of legitimate questions that were hard to ask. Both have in fact been asked constantly since 2020. But here's a thread on why I think they were wrong and dangerous on school closures 1/12

Adam @abrokenbattery.bsky.social · 5d ago

"Covid has just ruined my life and the lives of so many other children" Samir, 16, has seen little improvement 5 years after developing #LongCovid. He is still disabled, housebound, and wheelchair-bound. The only medical help has been private because there was nothing on the NHS.

Caroline Keep @ka83k.bsky.social · 4d ago

At the time I raised concerns in TES, & to the DfE, on the data being used to justify it was safe for teachers, students and parents to keep schools open. Many children, staff and parents caught long covid because there was literally zero in schools in regard of protections for a long time....

Prof Christina Pagel@chrischirp.bsky.social · 5d ago

Rachel Fairbank @sweetsciencewriter.bsky.social · last wk.

In my latest for @thesicktimes.org I covered the recent Dysautonomia International conference, which was held just outside Houston. It was three days of learning about all of the latest in research and clinical care.

Dysautonomia conference centers biomarkers and post-exertional malaise - The Sick Times

The 14th annual Dysautonomia International conference outside Houston included presentations on the role of autoimmunity in dysautonomia and a biobank initiative for POTS research.

thesicktimes.org

Elke Hausmann @drelke.bsky.social · last wk.

This sounds like a very important conference for getting PEM on the radar of POTS researchers… Change is painfully slow, but maybe it is happening… #LongCovid #ME

An ongoing debate about the role that exercise should play in managing dysautonomia led to tension at the conference. Although the number of people who have both POTS and ME is likely significant, we still do not have an accurate estimate for the comorbidity rate. This lack of data has contributed to POTS clinicians sometimes giving people with both POTS and ME inappropriate, and often harmful, advice about exercise.
The fact that they are now gathering under the same roof, with Dysautonomia International facilitating the collaboration, is a sign of progress.

Billy Hanlon@bhanlon15.bsky.social · last wk.

The Sick Times: 'Dysautonomia conference centers biomarkers and post-exertional malaise' Written by Rachel Fairbank thesicktimes.org/2026/07/28/d...

Chris Ponting @cgatist.bsky.social · last wk.

“Physical inactivity cannot solely explain the lower exercise capacity and skeletal muscle adaptations in long COVID and ME/CFS patients” www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Skeletal muscle properties in long COVID and ME/CFS differ from those induced by bed rest - Nature Communications

Low aerobic capacity in patients with long COVID and ME/CFS is often attributed to physical inactivity. The authors show that long COVID and ME/CFS patients have distinct skeletal muscle changes that ...

nature.com

Elke Hausmann @drelke.bsky.social · last wk.

Real science, one example: Prof Mark Faghy has a background in sport and exercise science. He applies exercise science principles primarily to clinical and respiratory health, and is conducting the ERASE clinical trial, a UK medical study testing the antiviral drug Remdesivir for #LongCovid

Dr H Crum (PhD)@minnie-bannister.bsky.social · last wk.

Tagging 'science' onto something doesn't make it a science. Physics, chemistry, biology are sciences. "Sports Science" is just a way for PE teachers to get jobs and paid more. Nobody's got a PE Nobel prize. It's so hard to get real funding for real science, why fund sports science. #auspol

Simon Parker @sparkerworld.bsky.social · last wk.

“Private equity now owns the plumbing of English general practice. The GP records of more than half the country sit on a system controlled by a firm whose business model is returns for investors, not care for patients, and the public found out after the fact.”

Alarm at NHS patient records being put under control of US private equity firm

Doctors and MPs urge more scrutiny of £300m deal for company behind system used by most GPs in England

theguardian.com

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.

I'm absolutely devastated for colleagues at Jodrell Bank who found out this morning that funding for the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope array will be terminated. This is a short-sighted move, to save a tiny fraction of the overall UK science budget. #SaveJodrellBank 🔭🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands

Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.

bbc.co.uk

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 3w ago

“What will the Lovell Telescope discover/enable 20 yrs from now? I can’t tell you, and that’s the point. It will either be something extraordinary that none of us can yet predict, or we will defund it and leave Cheshire with a rusting monument to unfulfilled potential and discoveries never made.” 🔭🧪

Enno Park @ennopark.de · last wk.

Gebt dem Mann einen Orden. (€) www.spiegel.de/panorama/bil...

Heckel: Um das ein für alle Mal klarzustellen: Es gibt für Lehrer kein Neutralitätsgebot , jedenfalls nicht in dem Sinne, wie die AfD es wieder und wieder bewusst falsch darstellt. Es gibt kein Gebot, wonach auch jede rassistische oder verfassungsfeindliche Position als legitim dargestellt werden müsste oder Parteiprogramme nicht kritisch analysiert werden dürften. Mich macht das wirklich wütend. Ich muss mich an das Gebot der Verfassungstreue halten. Bei einer gesichert rechtsextremen Partei wie der AfD in Sachsen-Anhalt steht nicht zur Diskussion, ob ich vor ihr warne. Laut Lehrauftrag als Staatsdiener muss ich vor ihr warnen.

Tom Kindlon @tomkindlon.bsky.social · last wk.

From the US: Item comprehension and content coverage of patient-reported outcome measures for long COVID: a qualitative study link.springer.com/article/10.1... "Overall, these results support the use of this set of modified PROMs in the phase 2 RECOVER-CT trials." #LongCovid

Item comprehension and content coverage of patient-reported outcome measures for long COVID: a qualitative study - Quality of Life Research

Purpose Fit-for-purpose clinical outcome assessments are essential to inform medical product development, but outcome measures for Long COVID, a new and devastating phenomenon, have not yet been estab...

link.springer.com

Elke Hausmann @drelke.bsky.social · last wk.

Can I really make myself un-sick? #LongCovid #ME 1/5

The thing with achieving' physical symptom improvements when your body is sick:
yes, there are better and worse ways to deal with your symptoms, which might make a difference to how much they affect you on any given day; yes, if you're depressed, those symptoms might weigh heavier on you; yes, directing your awareness elsewhere may temporarily relieve some of the deep discomfort, pain and suffering that comes with them - but after all that, the symptoms won't have gone, as long as your body is still sick and still produces them.
It always feels like a sleight of hand to me to say that we have the power to make our bodies un-sick; I mean, which disease really works like that? Could I make myself un-sick from cancer, from heart failure, from rheumatoid arthritis?

Elke Hausmann @drelke.bsky.social · last wk.

Of course if you believe that psychosocial processes ‚can‘ (not could!) contribute to symptom persistence, and find that your intervention has no effect on the severity of physical symptoms, you‘re gonna keep looking until you got your preferred answer… #LongCovid #ME

Tom Kindlon@tomkindlon.bsky.social · last wk.

Efficacy of a psychotherapeutic group interventionfor patients with Post-COVID-19 condition: a randomized controlled trial [RCT] (PsyLoCo study) link.springer.com/article/10.1... "In this exploratory RCT, the intervention did not show significant superiority over the control condition" #longCovid