Complaint
This programme investigated a treatment for Long Covid, known as the Lightning Process (LP). A listener complained the programme 鈥渕issed a chance鈥 to have an 鈥渙bjective look鈥 at the issue of persisting physical symptoms from Covid-19 by failing to include research conducted by the complainant. 聽The ECU considered whether the report met the standards of due accuracy set out in the Editorial Guidelines.
Outcome
Listeners were invited to consider whether the Lightning Process and its practitioners could do more harm than good to sufferers from Long Covid. 聽It was the claims and聽 offers made to patients by the practitioners of LP which were under scrutiny not the medical understanding of Long Covid, nor the extent to which psychology could affect outcomes from a scientific perspective. 聽The ECU noted that the UK National Institute for Health and Clinic Excellence (NIHCE) has advised sufferers of ME/CFS against using LP and although this recommendation concerned the treatment of another condition, 聽its reservations about the possible harm to patients from LP was relevant to Long Covid. 聽There was therefore no editorial requirement to present the evidence cited by the complainant in order for listeners to arrive at a duly accurate understanding of the scientific claims for the Lightning Process.
Not Upheld