← Long COVID Action Canada
Current campaign · FALCON trial, McMaster University
Long COVID patients deserve better.
Pause McMaster’s Lightning Process trial pending an independent scientific, ethical, and patient-led review. The FALCON trial compares the commercially branded Lightning Process with activity pacing. We are calling for recruitment to pause until serious questions about the study’s design, transparency, participant protections, commercial relationships, and objective outcome measures have been independently addressed.
What we’re asking for
Five asks. Each one stays here until it is answered in public.
When an answer arrives we publish it, date it, and change the status — including when the answer satisfies us.
01
Pause recruitment pending independent review. Recruitment should pause until an independent scientific, ethical, and patient-led review has addressed the study’s design, participant protections, and commercial relationships.
Awaiting responseAsked 2 Aug 2026
02
Disclose funding and commercial relationships. Publish all funding sources and commercial relationships connected to the trial, including any licensing or trademark arrangements.
Awaiting responseAsked 2 Aug 2026
03
Publish the protocol and analysis plan. The full protocol and the statistical analysis plan should be public, so the study can be assessed on its methods rather than its summary.
Awaiting responseAsked 2 Aug 2026
04
Use robust measures of function and harm. The trial is open-label and leans on self-reported outcomes. It needs objective measures of function, and it needs to detect and report harm — including post-exertional symptom worsening.
Awaiting responseAsked 2 Aug 2026
05
Meaningfully involve Long COVID patients. People living with Long COVID should help shape the study’s design, on the record, rather than being consulted after the protocol is written.
Awaiting responseAsked 2 Aug 2026
0 of 5 answered
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT07697261
Change starts when we act together.
Signing takes under a minute. We’re a small initiative — the petition is how this carries weight, and every name adds to it.
Sign the petition ↗