People with chronic fatigue syndrome have suffered long Covid symptoms for years – why did nobody care?

Firstly, let me state that I have every sympathy with those suffering from long Covid. However, while not at all intending to detract from or belittle their battles, what is increasingly uppermost in my mind is the number of people like myself who have lived with ME/CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) for decades, and largely had little or no acknowledgement, support or care.

ME/CFS are all but the same conditions as long Covid, with all symptoms being documented as virtually identical. Yet, over the decades, many of those with ME/CFS have been totally dismissed and treated despicably, not only by the medical profession but also by their relatives, colleagues and friends.

I was diagnosed with ME following an episode of glandular fever as a 15 year old in 1973. I have lived with this extremely debilitating illness for 48 years, at times virtually bed-bound for anything from 8-12 weeks at a time. I have developed numerous other illnesses and conditions over the decades, which are believed to be as a result of the glandular fever and ME.

It is a fact that many reported cases of long Covid are very evidently nowhere near as debilitating or long-lasting as ME/CFS. Only a very small minority of those with long Covid experience symptoms for more than 3-6 months. Many with ME/CFS face a “life sentence”.

At a time when there is a massive focus on caring for people with long Covid, I believe very strongly that it is now time for all those in the medical world to acknowledge the great injustice that has been done to ME/CSF sufferers, and accord us all the same level of care and compassion which is being given to long Covid patients.

Judi Martin

Aberdeenshire

Isn’t it time for the prime minister to act? Professor Neil Ferguson is saying that the Delta variant (previously known as the “India” variant) is up to 100 per cent more transmissible than the Alpha (“Kent”) variant. Public Health England warns that the Delta variant is more likely to lead to hospitalisations. Data from the Francis Crick Institute, published in The Lancet, warns that vaccines are less effective against the Delta variant. The growth of cases in the UK of the Delta variant continues to double about every week.

Surely, the time to act is today? If not now, when? If not you, prime minister, who?

Ian Henderson

Norwich

The prime minister wants us to learn to live with Covid-19, as it is unlikely to completely go away. Yet the further travel restrictions imposed yesterday show that the government’s approach is in the wind, remaining reactive to events rather than being a long-term strategy of structural changes that will facilitate a predictable return to normality.

Bambos Charalambous

Manchester

For once, I think Tom Peck is missing the point (‘The education catch-up money mess is yet another U-turn waiting to happen,’ 3 June). Almost nothing that is taught in school actually matters. Students spend most of their time rote-learning material that they will never need again in their lives: it follows that there is no need to catch up on it.

What does matter is less tangible. It is about developing a spirit of curiosity and inquiry. It is about the hope that at least one of their subjects will capture their imagination and lay a foundation for a future career. It is about discipline, including the self-discipline to study when they’d rather be doing almost anything else. And above all it is about learning how to learn. How does extra tutoring, or a longer school day, support any of those?

It is a shame that students have lost so much school time, but not for the reasons people tend to assume. Giving them, and those who teach them, extra work is likely to have exactly the opposite effect to that needed.

Rachael Padman

Newmarket

Tom Peck, as always, hits the nail on the head regarding an inevitable U-turn on school funding. He also points out that it was “the greys” in the so-called red wall who have given Boris Johnson his current majority.

A good strategy for the opposition would seem to be, therefore, to continually highlight the fact that a large number of “the greys” will be grandparents with school-age grandchildren, and they’ll want the very best education for them. Such a strategy, with constant reminders between now and the next election, will help “the greys” rethink their support for Johnson and his cohort of charlatans.

Richard Smith

Rugby

Why are the UK’s banks and big institutional investors fuelling the “climate crisis” by backing polluting companies with loans, essential financial services and investments? This all supports projects like coal mines, oil pipelines and fossil fuel power stations that wouldn’t have been possible without financial backing.

New research from Greenpeace and the WWF reveals that the financial sector is a huge polluting industry like aviation, oil, coal and intensive agriculture. By enabling polluting projects all over the world, the UK’s finance industry creates 1.8 times more emissions than the whole of the UK. In 2019, the industry was responsible for 805 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, making them the worst carbon polluters.

To avoid a “climate catastrophe”, legislation is needed to bring the industry in line with the Paris Agreement goals to tackle climate change. Without proper legal regulation set by the UK government, it will worsen the impacts of climate change. Why is the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, not changing the rules to force banks and asset managers to move loans and investments away from high-carbon industries?

Jeannette Schael

Tadley

I turned 70 in January. When I was about 13, we asked the physics master, a top bloke, who he was going to vote for in the next general election. “I never vote,” he said. “All politicians are second-raters. The only reason they become politicians is because they can’t do anything else.”

My dad agreed and since then, with very few exceptions, I haven’t seen any reason to disagree with him.

David Murfitt

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