Why has ME/CFS Research Stalled for Four Decades?
The troubled history of scientific ineptitude and patient suffering— “AMERICA’S BIGGEST COVER-UP: Original 1993 Introduction”
In 1988, I began covering the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic—now referred to as ME/CFS in government documents and elsewhere—weekly at the New York Native newspaper. In 1992, I drew upon those weekly columns to write a book—America’s Biggest Cover-Up: 50 More Things Everyone Should Know About The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic And Its Link To AIDS. It was published by TNM, Inc., the owner of the New York Native, as well as St. Martin’s Press in New York; in Japanese by Shindan-to-Chiryo, and in French by Les Editions Logique.
In 2021, I learned that the British medical journal Healthcare had published a special edition devoted to severe and very severe ME/CFS. I was stunned by how little progress had been made in the preceding 29 years.
The 2022 Kindle edition of America’s Biggest Cover-Up: 50 More Things Everyone Should Know About The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic And Its Link To AIDS, Updated 2nd Edition contained not only the text of the original manuscript but also a new introduction. Each week (or so), I will publish a new chapter or section for the paid subscribers to The Real AIDS Epidemic.
This is the second of those sections.
Original 1993 Introduction
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is not the only illness that is frustrating contemporary medical science. Gloom pervaded the Ninth International AIDS Meeting (held in Berlin in June 1993), as clinicians and researchers acknowledged that little progress was being made in fighting that illness. The drug that has been touted for years by the U.S government as stopping the progression of AIDS and extending patients’ lives, AZT, does neither. In fact, researchers revealed AZT is so toxic that it may hurt AIDS patients more than it helps. And the immune system marker used to evaluate AIDS patients’ health (and AZT’s action)—T4 cell counts—has essentially no correlation with patients’ health, it was admitted in Berlin.
Excellent book that people need to read for awareness. The medical community is not going to warn you about this illness and the dangerous immune deficiency that comes with it.
Or, has all medical research stalled for decades (mere claims of progress don't count)? While technology has greatly improved, medical discoveries seem to have gone in the opposite direction ( or does zero cures count as any movement?)