Author Archives: Jennie Spotila

Safety In Isolation

The COVID-19 pandemic has expanded dramatically in the last two weeks. I won’t attempt to summarize everything that has happened; there’s too much. Instead, I have gathered some information that I hope will be helpful to people with ME and … Continue reading

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A New Virus and ME

Updated: March 3, 2020 There is a new coronavirus circulating the globe, and there are quarantines of different sizes in multiple countries. This has led to great anxiety in financial markets, the media, and in communities. And you might be … Continue reading

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A New Year (With Cake)

In the last weeks of 2019, social media was full of people talking about their accomplishments of the last decade, or what they were most proud of, or the biggest changes they made. These posts made me feel terrible. What … Continue reading

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NIH Funding for ME Needs Life Support

Fiscal year 2019 is over, and we can now examine how much NIH spent on ME research. In previous years, I’ve broken down the funding at a granular level. I have done that in a separate post for those who … Continue reading

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NIH Funding for ME in 2019: The Details

Every year, I take a careful look at the funding that NIH reports it spent on ME research. Normally, this is mostly a number crunching exercise, but this year I wrote an entire post about a serious problem I discovered … Continue reading

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I’ve Missed You

I’ve missed you, my lovelies! I dropped off the grid for awhile in hopes of making progress on my book. I wrote some words. I also saw some beautiful things, and visited beloved friends and family. My husband and I … Continue reading

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I’ll Make It Simple

Dr. Jose Montoya has been fired from Stanford University after an investigation into alleged violations of Stanford’s rules of conduct, including sexual harassment, misconduct and assault. The Stanford Daily published an anonymous statement from a group of people affected by … Continue reading

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Another NIH Funding Fact Check

In April 2019, NIH finally published their funding numbers for ME/CFS research in 2018. That means it is time for another fact-check and correction! Update October 16, 2019: as explained below, I received more accurate numbers from NIH and have … Continue reading

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#MillionsMissing 2019

We are the disappeared The vanished The millions missing Blink Snap your fingers Gone Do you miss us? Does anyone ask what happened to us? Does it cross your mind that we are still very much alive? We think of … Continue reading

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I Want To Believe Dr. Collins, But I Don’t

Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, spoke to the ME community earlier this month at the meeting on Accelerating Research on ME/CFS. For the ten minutes he was present, Dr. Collins said a lot of nice … Continue reading

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