Martin W. Angler

@martinangler.com

693 Followers 278 Following

Science Journalist #LongCovid Context ABSW 2024 Awards Finalist theMHS 2024 Awards "Highly Commended" Portfolio https://muckrack.com/martinangler

a bearded man with glasses and a teal-colored tee is sitting on his bed with a laptop on his lap, the screen's light is reflected in his glasses.
Numbers and text on white background that states (in German): 871.000 Germans suffer from Long Covid. Source: ME/CFS Research Foundation
Text: As a doctor with me/cfs, this is probably the worst disease that exists. That is all. Reasons: 1)CFS/ME has a worse quality of life then almost any other disease including COPD, most cancers, most heart attacks, strokes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, etc. 2) It often effects you young or in the prime of your life, destroying all your potential. Most other serious chronic illnesses occur later in life. 3) It effects your mental capacity as well as your body. Many illness only effect the body, but keep your brain relatively intact. Multiple studies show brain damage, decrease blood flow to the brain, decreased brain metabolism, etc. 4) Perhaps the ONLY disease where exercise makes you significantly worse. 5) ZERO good treatments and only a 5% chance of recovery. 6) Nearly impossible to get disability and treatments not covered by insurance making it financially devastating. 7) Doesn't kill you, so your life insurance is useless to provide for your family. (This is a negative for me. Most important thing to me is my family be taken care of. I am the sole provider for my family of 5, and this disease ruined my entire families lives. If it killed me, then they would get my life insurance money and be okay). 8) Doctors aren't trained in it and most don't believe you or can't help you in any way. 9) It occurs through no fault of your own. Many chronic disease effect those that don't take care of themselves. I exercised and ate right, didn't matter. I went from running marathons and doing crossfit to more disabled then your average 80 year old at 35 years old. I am amazed that I learned about all these "terrible" diseases and disorders in medical school, and got this one...The worst of them all. I didn't know a person could suffer this much and still not die. I wish I had AIDS, MS, cancer, anything.....There are only very few diseases I can think of that are truly worse, ALS, Huntingtons Disease, and early onset parkinsons. That's about it.
The picture shows to identical brain cross-sections (black and white) side by side, seen from the top. The left cross-section shows a higher resolution version and is captioned "7-Tesla", while the right cross-section misses details and appear more blurry. It is captioned "3-Tesla". Pic by Mayo Clinic via Phoenix magazine
Berlins Cures' Press Statement, released on 13 November 2024. The statement says: "Topline results of Phase 2 Long Covid trial do not show evidence of superior efficacy of BC 007 over placebo arm"