Joel S. Hirschhorn, PhD<\/span><\/p>\n The COVID pandemic is far from over.\u00a0 <\/span>It is now morphed into long <\/i>COVID with millions of people suffering.<\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes what seems like a miraculous new medical remedy comes along.\u00a0 <\/span>And without government involvement.\u00a0 <\/span>Millions of long COVID sufferers now have an opportunity to use a new remedy and judge whether it safe and truly effective.\u00a0 <\/span>In contrast, the medical establishment and specialists work at fixing the many diverse symptoms and illnesses of long COVID.<\/span><\/p>\n What are long COVID sufferers to do?\u00a0 <\/span>There are no easy choices.<\/span><\/p>\n This analysis and discussion aim to help them make informed and difficult decisions.<\/span><\/p>\n Scope of problem<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Over the past year or so a great many victims of long COVID believe they have found a medical cure.\u00a0 <\/span>There is a lot of skepticism among medical professionals treating long COVID patients, often at specialized hospital centers.\u00a0 <\/span>That skepticism is warranted.<\/span><\/p>\n A recent article<\/span><\/a> is \u201c66 hospitals, health systems that have launched post-COVID-19 clinics.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>It noted: \u201cMany hospitals and health systems have created COVID-19 recovery programs, or post-COVID clinics, to support patients who experience lingering symptoms weeks or months after being cleared of the illness \u2014 a population now widely known as COVID-19 long-haulers.\u00a0 <\/span>Most COVID-19 recovery programs currently involve an initial evaluation and, as needed, referrals to a network of specialists such as pulmonologists, cardiologists and neurologists, among others.\u201c<\/span><\/p>\n Several excellent detailed investigative reports examine the system that the impressively credentialed Dr. Bruce Patterson and his company IncellDX have created.\u00a0 <\/span>His cure has also built a large following on social media sites.\u00a0 <\/span>No surprise. \u00a0 <\/span>They want to restore their quality of life.<\/span><\/p>\n One big problem in fairly examining the new revolutionary medical solution is the vast array of long COVD symptoms, as shown in the figure below<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/span>Physicians face the daunting challenge of addressing many symptoms successfully to fully satisfy patients.<\/span><\/p>\n Estimates are that about 10% to 30% of those who have recovered from COVID infections, even if they were asymptomatic, will get long COVID ailments.<\/span><\/p>\n Newly released data<\/span><\/a> for the UK said: \u201c the Office for National Statistics released data<\/span><\/a> showing that the number of people experiencing symptoms of Covid for three months or longer, known as long Covid, has reached a record high of 1.7 million.\u00a0 <\/span>The number of people who have had symptoms for more than a year has increased by 14.4 per cent.\u00a0 <\/span>Adjusting for population, that study indicates about 8 million Americans have long COVID.\u00a0 <\/span>But a <\/i>news story<\/i><\/span><\/a> said it might be 23 million Americans impacted<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n The long-term impacts of coronavirus are stunning.\u00a0 <\/span>A December 2021 UK study<\/span><\/a> found that more than 70% of patients admitted to hospital with COVID reported they did not feel fully recovered one year after recovery.<\/span><\/p>\n In the UK<\/span><\/a>: \u201cFatigue continued to be the most common symptom reported as part of individuals’ experience of long COVID (51% of those with self-reported long COVID), followed by shortness of breath (34%), loss of smell (28%), and muscle ache (24%).\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>In the US it has been <\/i>reported<\/i><\/span><\/a> that some 85% of long COVID patients experience fatigue, making it one of the most common long COVID symptoms.\u00a0 <\/span>And it is difficult to resolve completely.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n My own investigation found that many long COVID sufferers have not received complete cures when using the Patterson system, with only some of their symptoms effectively addressed in what is usually an expensive treatment.\u00a0 <\/span>But in truth, the medical establishment also has difficulty obtaining total success.\u00a0 <\/span>At best, various specialists attempt to treat symptoms, often without much success.\u00a0 <\/span>Many victims struggle to regain their pre-illness normal life, including employment if that is desired.\u00a0 <\/span>Serious fatigue in particular and shortness of breath blocks physical activity for many.<\/span><\/p>\n Connection to COVID vaccines<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n To his credit, Patterson has also been assisting people who seem to have long COVID symptoms as a result of receiving COVID mRNA vaccines.\u00a0 <\/span>This is reasonable because the common link are the spike proteins from infection and from those vaccines.\u00a0 <\/span>There is likely overlap between long COVID symptoms and COVID vaccine adverse health impacts.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Indeed, an article<\/span><\/a> titled \u201cIn rare cases, coronavirus vaccines may cause Long Covid\u2013like symptoms\u201d reported:\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cNow, a small number of other researchers worldwide is beginning to study whether the biology of Long Covid, itself still poorly understood, overlaps with the mysterious mechanisms driving certain postvaccine side effects.\u00a0 <\/span>\u2026 William Murphy, an immunologist at the University of California, Davis. proposed<\/span><\/a> that an autoimmune mechanism triggered by the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein might explain both Long Covid symptoms and some rare vaccine side effects.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Sample user comments<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Before delving into details of the Patterson system it is informative to hear from some users of it.<\/span><\/p>\n One user of the Patterson system told me this: \u201cI followed their recommendations, found a functional medicine doctor who gave me Rx for Maraviroc [an HIV drug] (very expensive!!!!), Ivermectin and Pravastatin.\u00a0 <\/span>The improvement was very gradual and I didn’t recover completely.\u00a0 <\/span>I still have anosmia [loss of smell] and still experience various degrees of joints and muscle discomfort. \u201c<\/span><\/p>\n A March 2022 news investigation<\/span><\/a> titled \u201cLong Covid patients, in search of relief, turn to private company\u201d reported these comments on their use of the treatment protocol:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSara Anaya said the medications recommended by IncellDx and prescribed to her by a local doctor worked, though it took a couple of months.\u00a0 <\/span>She still has very little sense of smell.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnne McCloskey said that she remained sick even though IncellDx’s tests suggested otherwise.\u00a0 <\/span>IncellDx’s tests showed that she had elevated levels of biomarkers that indicated long Covid.\u00a0 <\/span>She started with the company’s regimen, along with several other treatments.\u00a0 <\/span>Several months later, a repeat IncellDx blood test suggested she’d largely recovered.\u00a0 <\/span>But McCloskey still suffered from fevers, extreme fatigue and memory lapses.\u00a0 <\/span>[Patterson] told me that I was his poster child for recovery.\u00a0 <\/span>And I’m like, you know, I’m still really sick.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n And here are some comments posted on a YourTube interview<\/span><\/a> with Patterson in 2021:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSam b:I\u2019ve been on Patterson\u2019s protocol a week. The 4th and 5th days were brutal for my pots! I thought about giving up, but on the 6th day\u2026 I started to see a light and now a week in I\u2019m feeling 30% better. My shortness of breath is 95% better, my rashes are gone, my eyes are whiter and my heart rate is starting to go in the 80s when I stand.\u00a0 <\/span>This has been 17 months of hell after I got covid last year!!\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m hoping within a couple of months I\u2019ll feel like my old self.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAlexis:\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m very sorry to say that while many in the Long Covid community are closely following IncellDx, an equal number of people are very skeptical.\u00a0 <\/span>I think they have uncovered some interesting ideas but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s the solution.\u00a0 <\/span>I have taken Ivermectin and it did nothing at all.\u00a0 <\/span>For some it helped a few symptoms here and there.\u00a0 <\/span>Others in my support group have tried statins, most without any real results.\u00a0 <\/span>Statins did help one person quite a bit but they had more lung\/heart involvement it seems.\u00a0 <\/span>Maraviroc made one person worse.\u00a0 <\/span>All these meds have been very hard to access.\u00a0 <\/span>They have been also using prednisone, or at least they were at one point, which is concerning to a lot of us if we don\u2019t know whether the immune system needs to be ramped up or calmed down.\u00a0 <\/span>Obviously, it\u2019s different for everyone and maybe some have been helped, but do be wary.\u00a0 <\/span>I don\u2019t know of any people reporting success with this even though they keep saying they\u2019ve had so much success.\u00a0 <\/span>I don\u2019t think that Bruce Patterson has malicious intentions.\u00a0 <\/span>It might be one piece of the puzzle.\u00a0 <\/span>Maybe they will keep looking and find the real answer.\u00a0 <\/span>I will say Bruce is one of the few looking at viral persistence. \u2026any research that explores vascular issues is great I think because there really seems to be something to that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTRACEY G:\u00a0 <\/span>In the article I read about Patterson\u2019s Long Covid protocol, he mentioned that he has treated 2,000 people with Long Covid and 98% of them recover\u2026 within 6 mos of starting his treatment.\u00a0 <\/span>If this is the case, seems like a good number of these 2,000 former patients would have posted something about their successful treatments on social media.\u00a0 <\/span>Has anyone seen any such posts?\u00a0 <\/span>Or maybe my logic here is wrong?\u00a0 <\/span>[Note that Patterson has recently indicated he has treated about 14,000 patients.]\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/i><\/b>Patterson\/IncellDX system<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n A special blood sample is tested in their company and based on findings of a number of components an index value and treatment regimen are created that requires the use of several medicines, typically for 4 to 6 weeks, that cooperating physicians prescribe.\u00a0 <\/span>The combined costs of the testing, analysis, prescriptions and medicines likely adds up to thousands of dollars that medical insurance may not cover.\u00a0 <\/span>Long COVID sufferers who have not received effective treatment from their regular medical providers are often well motivated to spend large sums on what is advertised as an innovative and effective cure for long COVID.<\/span><\/p>\n At the core of the Patterson system is the conviction that the condition is caused by inflammation in the vascular system that can be effectively treated with several existing medicines.\u00a0 <\/span>The immune state is corrupted by pro-inflammatory cytokines or small proteins.\u00a0 <\/span>The large number of blood markers associated with the immune system and cytokines are found in their proprietary analysis and details exactly the vascular inflammation.\u00a0 <\/span>In 2020<\/span><\/a> about a dozen specific blood constituents were identified.<\/span><\/p>\n The company says:<\/span><\/a> \u201cOur panel collectively evaluates cytokines known to be involved in chronic COVID-19 and was developed using an algorithm established on a large, long-hauler patient population.\u00a0 <\/span>Other labs evaluate only a few of the cytokines in our panel.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>You can see that COVID vaccine sufferers may also have cytokines causing what are often called adverse health impacts.<\/span><\/p>\n This is how Patterson explained<\/span><\/a> in July 2021 his initial work:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAround June of 2020, \u2026we noticed was that people were being released from the hospital, they were alive, but by no stretch of the imagination, was their immune system normal.\u00a0 <\/span>And then we started hearing about patients\u2026 that were still having symptoms three and four months out\u2014 again, that was in the early days.\u00a0 <\/span>So we started investigating what their immune profile looked like.\u00a0 <\/span>And then we developed a machine learning AI computer program.\u00a0 <\/span>And what we did is we compared the immune profiles of acute COVID with, basically, long haulers. And it was completely different and abnormal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n There were other important observations: \u201cthe cells carried a COVID protein all over the body and caused inflammation.\u00a0 <\/span>,,,the cells have a propensity to bind the blood vessels through a pathway called fractalkine.\u00a0 <\/span>\u2026the cells are mobilized by exercise and to a person long haulers have exercise intolerance.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>But some victims may be suffering more from other ailments.<\/span><\/p>\n Here are more views of Patterson: \u201cAs we treat for four to six weeks, what we do when we restore the immune system and immune profile to normal, is then we start while they’re on medication, increasing their exercise and activity.\u00a0 <\/span>So we perturb their system, knowing that we’re reducing a number of these COVID containing cells, and we’re keeping them from binding to blood vessels, which is causing the symptoms.\u00a0 <\/span>So, we’re increasing their activity, while on medication while we’re following them.\u00a0 <\/span>They will get better.\u00a0 <\/span>[They] will get back to what you’re used to doing, and this is not something you’re going to have to deal with for a long time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Patterson has published research<\/span><\/a> documenting the finding of abnormal levels of cytokines \u2013 signaling inflammation in the body, and defining some 14 factors that could be found in blood.<\/span><\/p>\n Also noted was \u201cthese cells that contain COVID protein, go through the blood-brain barrier and cause vascular inflammation in the brain.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>This would explain many symptoms presumably, like brain fog.<\/span><\/p>\n Mother Jones investigative <\/b>report<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n This January 2022 outstanding report is titled \u201cDesperate Patients Are Shelling Out Thousands for a Long Covid Cure. Is It for Real?\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Here are some key excerpts:<\/span><\/p>\n It first describes the ordeal of a long COVID sufferer named Owen.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen Owen came down with Covid-19 in April 2021, he felt lucky to get away with a mild case.\u00a0 <\/span>After a few days of a runny nose, he returned to his regular routine, including long sessions at the gym.\u00a0 <\/span>But three weeks later, Owen, who was 25 at the time \u2026began to have trouble breathing.\u00a0 <\/span>It got so bad one day that he collapsed in his kitchen.\u00a0 <\/span>Later, at the emergency room, doctors searched for a cause but could find none, so they sent him home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn the weeks that followed, he was so exhausted that he couldn\u2019t get out of bed.\u00a0 <\/span>He tried to work, but his thinking was fuzzy.\u00a0 <\/span>His appetite was low, and he had trouble digesting even the smallest snacks.\u00a0 <\/span>Doctors ran heart tests, ultrasounds, and blood counts that turned up nothing.\u00a0 <\/span>Owen visited several clinics for long-haul Covid patients.\u00a0 <\/span>He got vaccinated.\u00a0 <\/span>He went through cognitive behavioral therapy, a psychological approach to managing symptoms.\u00a0 <\/span>A doctor prescribed him a low dose of an anti-addiction medication that had shown some promise in addressing the brain fog.\u00a0 <\/span>None of it helped.\u00a0 <\/span>Over the next few months, Owen lost nearly 80 pounds.\u00a0 <\/span>Desperate, he scoured the internet for answers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Eventually, Owen after a lot of web searching, found that \u201cA former Stanford virologist named Dr. Bruce Patterson had developed a special blood test to diagnose long Covid along with what he promised was a highly effective treatment regimen.\u00a0 <\/span>\u2026 he found entire social media groups devoted to Patterson and his diagnostic company, IncellDX. \u2018I am HUGELY thankful to them, gushed<\/span><\/a> one fan in a Reddit group.\u00a0 <\/span>For the first time in this nightmare, doctors are telling me that they have things to try that they think may help me.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPatterson\u2019s pitch was impressive: Owen would send a few vials of blood to IncellDX\u2019s lab, where technicians would look for evidence of elevated levels of cytokines, proteins that are thought to play an important role in the body\u2019s immune response.\u00a0 <\/span>The higher the patient\u2019s level of certain cytokines, they suggested, the worse the case of long Covid.\u00a0 <\/span>Based on those results, Patterson\u2019s team of doctors would assign Owen a \u2018long-hauler score\u2019 that indicated the severity of his disease. Owen would follow up with an IncellDX doctor to discuss the results and treatment.\u00a0 <\/span>If Owen\u2019s doctor wouldn\u2019t prescribe the drugs\u2014which was likely, since many of them weren\u2019t approved to treat Covid\u2014Patterson\u2019s team would connect him with a special network of doctors who would.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOwen had some reservations.\u00a0 <\/span>He knew that the process could be pricey and that his insurance probably wouldn\u2019t cover all of it.\u00a0 <\/span>But he was desperate. \u2018I was pretty suicidal,\u2019 he recalls. \u2018I was just so done with all of this.\u2019 So, after paying a few hundred dollars for the test, he sent off his vials of blood to IncellDX and waited for the results.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Owen story seems typical of many long COVID sufferers.<\/span><\/p>\n Also noted in this report is that there are \u201cdozens of long-haul Covid online support groups\u201d where \u201chundreds of thousands of members congregate to offer encouragement and commiserate over a dizzying list of ghastly symptoms.\u00a0 <\/span>Some haven\u2019t been able to get out of bed for a year or more.\u00a0 <\/span>Others find digesting food so difficult that they have to use a feeding tube to stay alive.\u00a0 <\/span>Many have had to stop working because they can no longer think clearly.\u00a0 <\/span>Then there are the reports of people who have been so tormented by their experiences that they have died by suicide.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The great difficulty in treating long COVID is emphasized.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cEven at new long-Covid clinics at major medical centers, physicians admit that their approach involves treating individual problems\u2014inhalers for breathing difficulty, for example, sleep aids for insomnia, or cognitive behavioral therapy for brain fog.\u00a0 <\/span>Dr. Benjamin Abramoff, a physician who specializes in rehabilitation and directs the Post-Covid Assessment and Recovery Clinic at Penn Medicine, says the spectrum of symptoms he sees is \u2018very, very broad.\u2019\u00a0 <\/span>As for treatments, so far, he says, \u2018There\u2019s no one size fits all.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Wise words.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPatterson\u2019s approach is different.\u00a0 <\/span>He claims that IncellDX\u2019s test and treatment protocols do not focus on simply relieving discomfort, but instead, the IncellDX