The race to see who will cover
People with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) have been neglected and even abused for decades by governments and medical systems. ME or ME/CFS is a complex, chronic neuroimmune condition that has been recognized by the World Health Organization since 1969 but still has no FDA-approved treatments. 17 to 30 million people around the world live with ME, many developing it after an infection. This disease is horrendous and criminally underfunded for the disease burden.
Despite early and ever-growing evidence of organic abnormalities, ME was falsely blamed on hysteria solely on the basis that it affects women at higher rates than men.
While governments & medical systems no longer use the term hysteria, preferring to hide their beliefs under more palatable words like psychosomatic, biopsychosocial, functional, etc, their attitudes haven’t changed. Their unscientific dogma has deprived people with ME of effective research & treatments for decades. Now around half of people with Long COVID meet the diagnostic criteria for ME, making the issue more urgent than ever.
We are at a loss for why the media has been mostly ignoring this massive issue that is devastating millions of lives around the world.
A small group of us have come together to form a social media campaign to encourage either John Oliver or Jon Stewart to bring this awful history to light with the power and balm of humor and raise awareness so we can finally start getting people with ME, including those who develop it through Long COVID, the research and care that are long overdue.
