The Scottish Sunday Express published a Comment piece by Emma Shorter who shared her experience of getting a virus nine years ago and never recovering – as a warning and wake-up call for the government to adequately address long haulers who are not recovering from Covid-19. Read the article.
Emma talks about how the practice of prescribing graded exercise therapy (GET) has irreparably harmed the ME community in the UK, and she cried with relief when she read the NICE draft guidelines on ME released last month recommended against it.
“The human impact of GET in Scotland has been heartbreaking,” writes Emma in her Comment piece. “When #MEAction Scotland petitioned the Scottish Parliament in 2018, we were inundated with personal stories. There was the child in Dundee who was made to exercise until they blacked out; the adult who was given GET as a child and never recovered; and the parents who were being threatened by child protection services, unless their child continued GET, even as they watched their child deteriorate. These cases are not isolated to Scotland. In global patient surveys going back decades, the majority of patients have consistently reported deteriorating.”
Emma ends her editorial with a call for the Scottish government to invest in the future of people with ME – and long haulers – by investing in research.
“Invest in research. Invest in care. Give us a chance to be part of Scotland’s future,” Emma writes.
