In fall 2023, a team of journalists from European TV channel ARTE TV accompanied three of our Long Covid and Post Vac Syndrom patients and  interviewed them and our team at the Apheresis Center. The documentary aired in June 2024. We have posted some clips/excerpts of it 'brainfog-sized' and short, so they are also easy to watch for patients with cognitive dysfunction, brainfog and related migraines: Click here.

Between the date when the documentary was filmed and the broadcast, many new scientific findings have been made and once more I was thinking to myself, that given the fact that most researchers and clinics do not get a lot of support, we have actually learned amazingly a lot in the last year only. More to that later!

Before the documentary, I was worried that the ARTE journalists and producers will fall in the old trap of trying to simplify the scientific and research part of what we do and then try to deliver a science piece that is easy to watch or read - because so far all those attempts have pretty much failed (probably even my many own attempts - after all it is very hard to find a balance between apheresis tec terms and common language). Even the very best one of those articles (click here) - thanks to Charles Schmidt, really well done - mix up Plasmapheresis with TPE and often do not realise H.E.L.P. Apheresis substantially differs from Plasmapheresis (as it is a plasma modulating treatment, not a cascaded filter system) whilst at the same time still being a subform of Plasmapheresis (I know - this can be confusing - I tried to bring some light into the matter in one of my last blog posts here). 

By eagerly trying to be balanced, these stories often let people, that do not have any knowledge on Long Covid, Post-Vac, Combination Therapy or H.E.L.P. Apheresis comment as experts, whilst being - as hard as it sounds - basically clueless.

My (maybe unpopular) opinion: Everyone is free to bring criticism or endorsement up, if they are an expert within the discussed area. But stating 'I don't understand how' - that is a comment, not critique of an expert. Probably better to keep such comments to themselves - they hold no value for anyone, most certainly not for affected sufferers.

I was happy to learn that the ARTE team managed to do once more what they are best known for: Document, not comment. Holding the camera, let the patients and doctors talk and let have people with different views have a word, so they are heard. And let the viewers make up their own mind without pushing an agenda.

I wanted to thank them for being different than many other journalists. THANK YOU! And by this I mean producing a documentary that does not only present smiley, happy and recovered patients, but the harsh reality of long and bumpy roads to recovery, dark moments and the reality of life: There are still things that we do not understand in many illnesses - but what we do know, lets us treat patients with good success - and all the best medical and research teams are learning at light speed since the pandemic hit us!

Now briefly back to what I mentioned earlier on - what have 'we' (the 'royal we' as in the whole community of patient driven research, researchers and clinicians) learned in the last year? 

Here just a few astonishing things (and sorry for not posting dozens of links to those findings here - a DOI search will help those that want to read up on the topics) we learned in the last year:

- H.E.L.P. Apheresis removes 92% of the spike protein from the blood in just one session

- Microclots are no longer a theory - the science has been replicated often enough to say we are looking at solid evidence (nevertheless some will need years to come to that conclusion). Here is an example of a current, excellent study on microclots.

- Diagnostics now allow us to test for spike protein in serum, exosomes, immune cells - gaining really good direction for more targeted treatments

- We now have much more experience and see significant results with new co-therapies of H.E.L.P. Apheresis like Immunoadsorption, IVIG IgM enhanced, Hyperthermia and others

- The 'numbers' are now getting more and more clear - with combination of H.E.L.P. Apheresis and other therapies patients see significant results (ongoing register study of the E-ISFA https://post-covid-aphereseregister.de/ of which early results were referred to during first presentations, confirming early evidence of around 80% success rate is plausible) 

Best regards, Markus