"Patterson's approach is different. He claims that IncellDX's test and treatment protocols do not focus on simply relieving discomfort, but instead, the IncellDX Covid Long Haulers website says, go directly to 'the underlying immunologic causes of long-haul Covid,' which Patterson believes is an overactivation of several cytokines, small proteins that play an important role in activating the immune system."
Patterson offers a treatment protocol that he describes as being specifically tailored to a patient's test results--often a combination of off-label medications including blood pressure medications, steroids, an HIV medication called maraviroc, and the controversial antiparasitic drug ivermectin [though that has been replaced with low-dose steroids]. Recently, Patterson's team has also begun offering their protocol to people who believe they are suffering from long-term effects of the Covid vaccines. "[Patterson said] We found a very similar pathology in postvaccination long haulers as we found in Covid long haulers, even though they've never experienced the actual virus." [But they have been injected with spike proteins.]
"All of this isn't cheap. The test costs about $360, and several follow-up consults with IncellDX physicians cost $199 each. Some of the prescribing doctors in IncellDX's network charge a fee of a few hundred dollars, and some of the medications can cost as much as a few thousand dollars a month. Because the IncellDX team says patients often must continue the drugs for eight to 12 weeks before symptoms improve, the costs can be considerable and, again, unlikely to be covered by insurance since IncellDX's approach is considered experimental.
"Yet for the nearly 14,000 long-Covid patients who have signed up for the IncellDX protocol, that's a small price to pay for the possibility of relief.
"Some patients have even declared that the team's treatment has cured them. One long hauler from Pittsburgh told a local newspaper that before going through the IncellDX program, she had debilitating fatigue, headaches, and tremors. Since starting treatment, 'The best thing is I can actually be part of my kids' days,' she said. 'Instead of lying on the sofa watching them play, I actually got to play with them and feel like I was a mom again.'
"Dr. Patterson says that the protocol has worked for 85 percent of their patients. While the team has published a few small studies supporting their theory, so far, it has not conducted a randomized controlled trial, the gold standard in study design.
"This treat-first-test-later method is not the only irregular thing about IncellDX's long-Covid work. A Mother Jones investigation uncovered unusual behavior by the team, including offering medical advice and recruiting patients on YouTube and social media, failing to disclose financial conflicts of interest, and reports of inconsistencies in lab results--all in service of a program that often costs thousands of dollars. Taken together, these practices have raised the suspicions of some scientists and patient advocates who worry IncellDX may be using unproven tests and treatments to take advantage of the desperation of 14,000 long Covid patients. As Stanford bioethicist Hank Greely [said], 'The red flags are in full force on this one.'
"And long-Covid sufferers are especially vulnerable because so little is known about their condition, says Diana Berrent, founder of the long-Covid support group Survivor Corps. She has seen many of the 180,000 members of her Facebook group spend thousands of dollars on IncellDX treatments, with, she says, no real results."
To these criticisms, Patterson counters that his approach is light years beyond what other doctors are doing.
Back to the Owen story.
"In August 2021, a few days after Owen had sent his blood samples to IncellDX, his results arrived in an email. The test found high levels of several cytokine markers, which the IncellDX team said indicated that Owen did indeed have long Covid and could benefit from the company's treatment protocol. During Owen's consultation, a staffer put him in touch with a telemedicine doctor who would prescribe a steroid, a statin, ivermectin, and the HIV medication maraviroc. The process of actually acquiring the drugs, Owen recalls, was 'a nightmare.' He had to order some of the medications from China, and he paid $2,000 out of pocket for the maraviroc. But his fatigue, brain fog, and digestion problems were getting worse, so he began the treatment, crossing his fingers this investment would result in relief. To avoid getting discouraged, he began compulsively checking the internet for any new morsels of positive signs about the protocol. The doctors, he learned, had quite a tight group of followers on social media and YouTube; it struck Owen as being a 'weird, cultish environment.'"
Mother Jones goes on: "Patterson's public behavior can appear to be unorthodox for a physician... On Twitter, he has offered to diagnose people with long Covid using his unapproved test. He also has made unfounded claims in interviews and on social media that the drugs he endorses can treat symptoms such as brain fog, neuropathy, and tinnitus. That's a problem, says Stanford's Hank Greely, because IncellDX's approach is 'both unproven as a diagnostic and unproven as a treatment for this particular disease.' Still, Patterson, a highly-credentialed, genial-looking middle-aged white man, comes off as trustworthy and credible. He often appears in IncellDX videos wearing a white coat and peppers his comments with arcane explanations of the immune system, all of which confers an air of scientific gravitas."
The missing micro blood clot issue
For some time, I have been spreading information about micro blood clots found in COVID infection, long COVID and COVID-vaccine victims. Spike proteins within small blood vessels nucleate the clots, which can become mobile. Research on long COVID found micro blood clots. In none of Patterson's considerable writings is there any mention of micro blood clots, nor has he invoked them as explaining the vascular inflammation his treatment protocol addresses.
In a private email Patterson acknowledged his awareness of the micro blood clot findings. What deserves some consideration is that micro blood clots throughout the body that can be determined with a D-dimer test could contribute to maladies by restricting oxygen flow to organs and the brain. And if clots reach critical sites, they could negatively impact organ or brain functioning. And of course, the vascular inflammation that Patterson addresses could be related to the micro clots that are ignored by his treatment. Nor does it appear that Patterson uses the D-dimer blood test to evaluate his patients.
When I asked physicians how they were treating long COVID, frequent responses were the use of blood thinners and anticoagulants: Plavix, Eliquis and aspirin. I have been referred to this article that some may find useful: "Stopping Long Haul COVID-19 in Its'[sic] Tracks and Regaining Health Back Using Homeopathy."
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