We spoke with the two organizations behind the viral moment where advocates interrupted speakers at the Long COVID EU Project event.
On the morning of April 23, two people with Long COVID interrupted the opening of a conference in Paris, France. One gave a short speech pushing back against the “psychologization” of the disease, as this conference, the Long COVID EU Project Final Event, dismissed important biological research. The clip of the action has since gone viral and has been shared around the world.
“We are sick, we are disabled, and we are dying because of charlatans like you,” one of the people with Long COVID said beside a lectern, directing his statements at two of the conference’s speakers, Cédric Lemogne and Brigette Ranque. The event also featured Paul Garner as a speaker, who has been accused of infiltrating Long COVID support groups and influencing international guidelines on treating the disease.
“We will attack all the projects, all the investments that psychologize Long COVID,” the advocate said. Other actions that day included organized pushback from online participants, as well as two others who spoke from the audience. One shouted, “We want biomarkers, not yoga!”
The action was organized ahead of the conference by the Winslow Santé Publique action group (WSP), with the help of members of Action Covid Long (ACL); both groups are French Long COVID organizations.
Lemogne grabbed the arm of the speaker and attempted to pull him away as he spoke, even as he stated the speech would only take two minutes. “We want real care, not cognitive behavioral therapy or meditation,” the WSP speaker said. “We need medications for our lungs, hearts, stomachs, immune systems, [and] brains damaged by COVID.”
There is a long history of psychologizing infection-associated chronic diseases like Long COVID. And, despite extensive research for Long COVID showing viral persistence, immune dysregulation, reactivated viruses, and more, groups of researchers continue to prioritize potentially harmful and not scientifically backed behavioral interventions, including exercise and cognitive behavioral therapy.
“Nothing for us, without us,” the WSP speaker said before being escorted out by security, highlighting a demand of people with Long COVID around the world.
The Sick Times interviewed the two organizations associated with the action over email. One of the people with Long COVID in the viral clip contributed to the interview. The responses have been translated from French by the organizers. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Miles W. Griffis: Can you please briefly describe the organizations involved with the action at the conference?
Winslow Santé Publique action group (WSP): Winslow Santé Publique is a French association made up mainly of people living with Long COVID, but also of people with disabilities and/or chronic illness, together with their allies, who are fighting against the COVID pandemic.
Beyond our individual stories, we see COVID first and foremost as a political issue:
- We are fighting against the downplaying of the COVID-19 pandemic and its harmful consequences for public health.
- We are calling for collective measures to mitigate the risks posed by COVID-19, commensurate with the urgency and severity of the situation.
- We defend the rights of everyone affected by the [SARS-C0V-2] virus.
- We are campaigning to ensure that preventive and curative treatments for Long COVID are found as soon as possible.
Action Covid Long – Les Oubliés du Covid (ACL): [We are] a grassroots and campaigning organization dedicated to raising awareness of Long Covid among children, adults and people of all ages. We organize campaigns, events, and advocacy work to give a voice to those affected.
Our work focuses on three priorities: raising awareness, providing information, and prevention. We go wherever we are needed to bring Long COVID to the fore.
MG: Did the people in the video of the action have Long COVID themselves, or, were they allies to people with the disease?
WSP/ACL: The two people who appear in this first video are both living with Long COVID, which makes the doctors’ behavior toward them all the more shocking. The man who comes on stage is visibly disabled and uses a mobility aid, yet this does not stop psychiatrist Cédric Lemogne from violently grabbing his arm and attempting to snatch his walking stick away from him.
The woman, who is seen being pushed across the room and punched in the ribs, repeatedly claims, “I’m ill, don’t touch me, I have Long COVID,” amid general indifference.
MG: How many people led the action — were there more than the two shown in the video?
WSP/ACL: The two people filming are allies, and we would like to thank them warmly for their help and commitment. We also need able-bodied people to feel that our struggles concern them, too. Two other people living with illness were in the audience and also spoke out with great courage. We also had members online providing information via the chat. In the run-up to the event, several active members were involved in organizing it. Even those who were unable to attend were able to play their part.
The campaign was organized in advance by the Winslow Santé Publique action group, with the help of members of Action COVID Long. This group brings together all members of the association who wish to help organize various nonviolent campaigns to advance the fight against COVID and establish a balance of power with the key players in the pandemic (health authorities, politicians, quack doctors, etc.)
We claim a direct lineage from the methods of action and organization used in the fight against AIDS, and from ACT UP Paris in particular. Our group already proved its mettle last year with two protests targeting the French Society of Cardiology, which remained silent on Long COVID despite the consensus published by their European counterparts. This campaign is just the beginning.
MG: Why did you choose to speak at this specific conference, and at what time did it occur in the conference?
WSP: We saw the announcement of the conference and the [program], which was only circulated among doctors and was kept very low-key apart from an email. In itself, it was already strange: the patient organizations (like us) in France had not been invited. But above all, the organizers and presenters have been well known since 2021 here for framing Long COVID in psychological terms and referring patients to non-pharmacological treatments without first conducting a thorough examination.
Just recently, they conducted a study aimed at linking the persistent symptoms of chronic illnesses to “personality traits.” Given the topics, we immediately saw that the aim was to promote these practices in a European conference. These people whose theories are beginning to be challenged wish to remain in their positions and develop quick care pathways focused on well-being. In fact, people leading research groups on these “alternative therapies” were present and actively involved in the conference (directors of this group here). We thought it was very dangerous and we also want to be there each time doctors talk about us, with reference to the principles of participatory democracy as enshrined in the Denver Principles, which were shaped by the HIV/AIDS crisis.
ACL: We chose to speak at this conference because it brought together professionals from the medical field, particularly from the fields of psychiatry and psychology, as well as patients. We felt it was essential to speak out in this forum, where narratives and policies regarding Long COVID are being shaped — narratives and policies with which we disagree, and in which patient organizations are not consulted.
We took action at that precise moment to highlight the tendency to view Long COVID solely through a psychological lens. It was important for us to emphasise that this is an organic, multi-systemic condition, now extensively documented by scientific research.
We note that patients’ symptoms are still too often dismissed or interpreted through the prism of stress, anxiety, or psychosomatic disorders, even though biological and pathophysiological mechanisms have been described in the scientific literature. This approach leads to patients’ accounts being dismissed and to inappropriate treatment, without any thorough physical examinations being carried out.
Many patients disagree with these treatment approaches. They do not reflect either their personal experiences or current scientific knowledge. They undermine treatment, which remains largely inadequate, and hinder recognition of the condition.
We would also like to point out that people living with Long COVID have developed a wealth of practical knowledge. It is the patients themselves who have helped to bring this condition to light and document it, working alongside dedicated researchers. Their voices must be given full consideration. We were there to highlight this reality.
It is the patients themselves who have helped to bring this condition to light and document it, working alongside dedicated researchers. Their voices must be given full consideration. We were there to highlight this reality.
Action Covid Long
MG: What specific “psychologization of Long COVID” did you see at the event in its programming and speeches? Were there particular people you were speaking out against?
WSP: During this event, we observed yet another example of the psychologization of Long COVID in the content and statements made. The consortium’s coordinators, Brigitte Ranque and Cédric Lemogne, are well known in France for advocating an approach heavily influenced by psychosomatization, which has already caused significant harm to people suffering from Long COVID.
In particular, they are associated with a physical activity-based rehabilitation program called CASPER, whose methods have been widely criticised by many patients as they can exacerbate symptoms and put patients at risk of complications; instead, they are directed toward practices such as mindfulness meditation or brain training.
Although their stance has shifted under pressure from critics and they no longer explicitly claim that Long COVID is “psychological,” they continue to promote a brain-centered interpretation, according to which the symptoms are said to arise in the absence of any identifiable biological cause. This semantic reformulation changes nothing in substance: it amounts to denying the physical reality of the illness and shifting the blame onto the patients themselves.
During this event, their comments remained vague and unsupported by scientific evidence. In particular, they denied or downplayed major research advances of recent years, claiming that viral persistence or microclots were not involved in Long COVID. They also maintained that there was no clear organic cause and that the majority of patients would recover without drug treatment.
Finally, the materials handed out at the event reflected this approach: they highlighted recommendations such as physical exercise, meditation, a healthy diet, and gradual exposure to factors that trigger symptoms. However, these strategies can be harmful to many patients and have not been proven to be effective.
ACL: Throughout the program, there is a clear psychological focus on Long COVID. This approach is not new. As patients, we are faced with it.
Despite the growing body of research in the international scientific literature, this trend in France has not abated. Some patients have been referred for psychiatric care and received inappropriate treatment, sometimes with serious consequences and a worsening of their condition, despite the existence of medical assessments highlighting biological abnormalities.
We have come across this policy, which we oppose. Our intervention forms part of a broader stance against an approach that could spread across the globe.
MG: What are your main demands of the conference, and/or of the larger Long COVID research community?
WSP: The situation of patients living with Long COVID is too serious to allow European funding to be directed toward programs such as those advocated by these physicians. We have already wasted too much time; people affected by Long COVID continue to deteriorate, and new individuals are joining them with each wave of reinfections. There is an absolute urgency to act now, and the “wellness sphere” will not provide any concrete solutions. If this helps some patients, that is fine, it is not a problem, but it must remain within an individual framework.
We need rigorous clinical trials, not assumptions such as the idea presented here of a brain that generates symptoms, whereas we already have substantial evidence of the multisystemic nature of Long COVID, and international scientific societies (such as the European Society of Cardiology, for example, in its 2025 consensus on Long COVID) have acknowledged this reality and issued guidance. A step backward would be catastrophic. We need guidance for each affected organ system.
We also want so-called physicians and researchers such as Lemogne and Ranque to be ostracized from research and care spaces related to Long COVID. Their presence in these spaces, and more generally in the public sphere, is inversely proportional to the rigor and quality of their work, which is contradicted by the vast majority of the scientific literature on Long COVID.
It is unfortunately no coincidence that the “psychological hypothesis” finds more “institutional” support in France than elsewhere, as epidemiologist Ziyad Al-Aly reminded AFP in March.
ACL: Our demands are clear. We call for full recognition of Long COVID as an organic and multisystem disease, based on current scientific data.
We demand the cessation of approaches that reduce this illness to psychological dimensions, approaches that correspond neither to patients’ lived experience nor to the current state of knowledge.
We demand real access to examinations, diagnoses, and appropriate care pathways, which are still very difficult to obtain today.
We also demand that patients’ voices be fully integrated, as stakeholders concerned and holders of essential experiential knowledge.
Long COVID is a major public health issue. It must be recognized as such, with adequate resources: training of healthcare professionals, structuring of appropriate care pathways, and development of research and treatments.
Prevention must be strengthened. It requires clear, rigorous, evidence-based information, as well as concrete risk-reduction measures in shared spaces. This is especially important given that SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted through the air, including in the absence of symptoms, and that simple preventive measures such as wearing FFP2 masks are available, while the scale of the risk is not sufficiently taken into account.
Finally, we call for a strong commitment from the scientific and medical community to improve understanding of the mechanisms of Long COVID and the care of patients.
There is an absolute urgency to act now, and the “wellness sphere” will not provide any concrete solutions.
Winslow Santé Publique action group
MG: What happened after the action took place, both at the conference and the week following?
ACL: We were removed and evacuated from the room in two stages: first one person, then the second, who was continuing to read the statement. The other people present were also evacuated in a second phase after their intervention.
This action, intended to be peaceful and nonviolent, led to strong physical reactions. We were pushed, which was particularly shocking, especially as we are ill, and because it is an extremely difficult exercise to carry out when living with Long COVID, and in a context where no preventive measures are in place at the venue.
Personally, I was forcibly removed from the room. This resulted in pain, and I had to maintain my balance to avoid falling, in a context where my health condition related to Long COVID makes me particularly vulnerable.
We did not expect such a reaction. We were there to make our voices heard, in a nonviolent way, in a space where we are not managing to be heard.
If we took this risk, it is because there is no longer any other space left to be heard. We carried a message for all those who have been suffering since the beginning of the pandemic, adults as well as children. This action was a cry to be heard, in the face of suffering, lack of recognition, and the psychologization that many patients are still experiencing today.
WSP: We have witnessed a genuine smear campaign, coordinated by part of the media located on the right of the political spectrum and by the medical press. We have been surprised and alarmed to see that certain French physicians align themselves with the theories of Lemogne and Ranque, which nevertheless lead directly toward “fakemed”: patients have already raised the alarm by referring the matter to several official bodies.
We are being accused of violence, even though our action was strictly peaceful, as the images clearly show. This is a clear inversion of responsibility.
Not having been invited to take part in this event, which included only the voices of “recovered” patients, we question the space granted to patient representatives whenever they challenge certain minimizing narratives.
In the aftermath of this action, three disinformation articles were published in quick succession. One of them, written by Victor Garcia, a journalist at L’Express (a major national French media outlet), is particularly biased and was produced without even interviewing the activists present on site, even though the journalist was attending the conference. It uncritically relays the organizers’ talking points, erases the violence, despite it being filmed, committed by Lemogne against a patient, while mocking our mobilization, going so far as to compare it to a Benny Hill sketch.
This media treatment, both partial and contemptuous, reflects a broader issue in France: as soon as patients organize to challenge approaches they consider dangerous, they are discredited rather than heard. This rapid and coordinated backlash is anything but trivial.
MG: How are you feeling after the action? How is your health and energy levels?
WSP: The person who spoke on our behalf was deeply shaken. A lawyer by profession — and therefore accustomed to speaking in sometimes hostile settings — he had nevertheless never faced such a high level of aggression. The physical violence and intimidation, coming from both doctors and members of the public, were particularly brutal, and the consequences were severe in terms of recovery in the days that followed.
ACL: After this action, it took a real toll on my energy levels and my health. I expended far more energy than I had anticipated. Long COVID already causes significant exhaustion, and this type of action requires considerable physical and mental effort. Following the action, I was completely exhausted and it took me several days to recover; the jostling also had an impact on my physical condition, causing me pain.
The aim was for our message to be heard in this place, by everyone suffering from Long COVID, in France and around the world.
MG: Is there anything else you think readers should know about the conference or action? Or anything else you’d like to say?
WSP: We hope that this initiative will mark a turning point and inspire many people suffering from Long COVID around the world to take action themselves. It is intended to be replicated, adapted, and scaled up wherever patients are overlooked or excluded from decisions that affect them. Six years into the pandemic, it is high time to fight back.
We invite everyone living with Long COVID to organize locally to make their voices heard and to stand up to those who are actively or passively contributing to the pandemic: quack doctors, silent health authorities, incompetent politicians, and so on.
We must also forge alliances with other movements (anti-ableism and anti-psychiatry, anti-racism, feminism, LGBTQIA+, environmentalism, etc.) because everything is interconnected. The COVID crisis is only just beginning, and we will not let ourselves be walked all over any longer.
ACL: What I would like to add is that, in 2026, the situation regarding Long COVID is extremely worrying for patients, as it continues to be given insufficient consideration in health policies.
It is deeply concerning to see that these inappropriate approaches continue to be promoted, even though many researchers are now actively engaged in producing robust research.
This disconnect between scientific knowledge and certain practices has real-world consequences for patients.
What I am saying today is a wake-up call.
It is time to refocus our approach on scientific evidence, to fully acknowledge the reality of Long COVID, and to finally listen to patients.
We cannot wait any longer.
Nothing about us without us.
It is time to refocus our approach on scientific evidence, to fully acknowledge the reality of Long COVID, and to finally listen to patients. We cannot wait any longer. Nothing about us without us.
Action Covid Long
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[…] by people with infection-associated chronic diseases. Last month, advocates in Paris, France, interrupted a conference and demanded biological research into Long COVID. And today, the United Kingdom group Long COVID […]