How to make a popular metric tell any story you like

Podcast-Folge · Die Dunkelkammer – Der Investigativ-Podcast · 21.11.2025 · 1 Std. 3 Min.

Nationale Dekade gegen Postinfektiöse Erkrankungen: 500 Millionen Euro für Forschung

Nationale Dekade gegen Postinfektiöse Erkrankungen: 500 Millionen Euro für Forschung

Here is a handy compilation of how COVID-19 negatively impacts the immune system, featuring over 45 studies. Much more evidence-based than spurious, unscientific claims of “immunity debt.”

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a baffling disease. The disease has a wide spectrum of severity, to date has no established molecular marker, no known causation, and no cure. Many patients report in retrospect that they suffered a virus infection prior to suffering their first symptoms of ME/CFS. Therefore, we report a search for virus genome sequences in the cell-free blood of ME/CFS patients and healthy controls. We used a panel of molecular probes to assess the presence or absence of 185 diverse human viruses in each sample. We identified a total of seventeen viruses, with more in the healthy controls than in the ME/CFS patients. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement These experiments were supported by NIH grant 4 P01 HG000205 to RWD. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The Stanford University IRB (Protocol 34830) gave ethical approval for this work. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All scripts, keyfiles, and data (starting with the collapsed fastq sequences at the end of step2) are available at <https://github.com/k-roy/MOLECULAR_PROBES> and archived with Zenodo at <https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17429326>. <https://github.com/k-roy/MOLECULAR_PROBES> <https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17429326>

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a baffling disease. The disease has a wide spectrum of severity, to date has no established molecular marker, no known causation, and no cure. Many patients report in retrospect that they suffered a virus infection prior to suffering their first symptoms of ME/CFS. Therefore, we report a search for virus genome sequences in the cell-free blood of ME/CFS patients and healthy controls. We used a panel of molecular probes to assess the presence or absence of 185 diverse human viruses in each sample. We identified a total of seventeen viruses, with more in the healthy controls than in the ME/CFS patients. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement These experiments were supported by NIH grant 4 P01 HG000205 to RWD. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The Stanford University IRB (Protocol 34830) gave ethical approval for this work. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All scripts, keyfiles, and data (starting with the collapsed fastq sequences at the end of step2) are available at <https://github.com/k-roy/MOLECULAR_PROBES> and archived with Zenodo at <https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17429326>. <https://github.com/k-roy/MOLECULAR_PROBES> <https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17429326>