Research
- Inspiritol, a drug candidate for Long Covid and ME, led to symptom relief and alleviated immune system dysfunction in a case series study involving eight patients, researchers reported in the journal Brain, Behavior, & Immunity in late December. The study’s results also support testing for specific deficiencies in CD8 T-cells, a type of immune system cell, as a potential biomarker for both Long Covid and ME. Inspiritol is produced by a start-up with the same name, which will be applying to the FDA to conduct clinical trials of this drug, study author Mady Hornig shared on Twitter.
- In another study examining potential biomarkers, a consortium of researchers in the U.K. measured markers of brain injury and immune system dysregulation following SARS-CoV-2 infection. The study included about 200 people hospitalized for Covid-19, compared to people who weren’t infected through a variety of tests and neurological measurements. Researchers identified specific markers of brain injury, nervous system injury, inflammation, autoantibodies, and other signs of dysfunction in patients’ blood samples; some markers were more pronounced among patients with long-term neurological symptoms.
- Also in late December, researchers at the CDC and FDA published a pair of studies examining potential rebounding symptoms after courses of Paxlovid. The FDA study was a clinical trial comparing Paxlovid to placebo, while the CDC study compiled results from past papers. Both studies found no correlation between Paxlovid treatment and rebound, meaning that acute symptoms can return (after appearing alleviated) at similar rates for people who do and don’t use the antiviral treatment.
Advocacy and recommended reading
- Inspired by a Tweet from disability rights advocate Alice Wong, disability and chronic illness communities are campaigning on Twitter for the popular political podcast Pod Save America to produce an episode on Long Covid. The campaign ignited after Jon Favreau, one of the podcast’s hosts, mocked a union worker who criticized Senator Bernie Sanders for normalizing working while sick with Covid-19. The hashtag #PodSaveJon quickly began trending this week. Writer Heather Ringo added context to the event in a video series, showing the link between disability, worker’s rights, eugenics, and Covid-19/Long Covid.
- Journalist Simon Spichak recently launched a new free Substack, Documenting MAID. The newsletter collects recent news, documents, and research about medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in Canada, building on his prior reporting on the topic and its overlap with ME and Long Covid. Read issue one: What MAID Data Does and Doesn’t Tell Us and issue two: How MAID Data Collection Works.
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