Dr Alastair Miller's misleading claims about effectiveness of the English NHS (rehab) ME/CFS clinics at a Royal Society of Medicine webinar in Sept 2020
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As Dr David Tuller reported*, the Royal Society of Medicine conducted an online webinar recently called “Long COVID: Understanding the shadow of the virus.”
Among others, it featured Dr Alastair Miller (an infectious disease expert from Liverpool who used to run a local ME/CFS clinic) who claimed with regard to ME/CFS:
"And from our results, which are pretty much in line with PACE and all the other centers that are using these therapies, we reckoned that about one third of our patients made a complete recovery and go back to a pre-morbid existence, about a third made an improvement but still had some symptoms, and about a third did not recover.”
Fortunately, we don't have to depend on Dr Miller's claims: we actually have a published paper on the English NHS (rehab) ME/CFS clinics**.
A quick review of the data shows that Dr Miller's claims don't add up:
(From table 3)
At 1 year after initial assessment
I have been able to return to work or increase my hours: 18.0%
I have stopped working or reduced my hours: 34.8%
(From Table 6)
At 2- to 5-year follow-up
I have been able to return to work or increase my hours: 23.7%
I have stopped working or reduced my hours: 34.9%
(From table 4)
At 1 year after initial assessment
Do you think that you are still suffering from CFS/ME? No: 2.8% Uncertain: 10%
Note, that "no" and "uncertain" would also include those who now consider CFS/ME to be a misdiagnosis; it doesn't mean they are fully healthy
(From table 6)
Do you think that you are still suffering from CFS/ME?
At 2 years. No: 5.0% Uncertain: 8.8%
At 3 years: No: 2.4% Uncertain: 7.2%
At 4 years: No: 6.6% Uncertain: 11.3%
At 5 years: No: 8.2% Uncertain: 9.2%
Again, note that "no" and "uncertain" would also include those who now consider CFS/ME to be a misdiagnosis; it doesn't mean they are fully healthy
*Trial By Error: That Royal Society of Medicine Webinar on Long-Covid
https://www.virology.ws/2020/10/01/tria-by-error-royal-society-of-medicine-webinar-on-long-covid/
**Specialist treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome/ME: a cohort study among adult patients in England"
https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-017-2437-3
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