Category Archives: Commentary

NIH Funding for ME Needs Life Support

Posted on November 7, 2019 by Jennie Spotila

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 →

Posted in Advocacy, Commentary, Research | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

NIH Funding for ME in 2019: The Details

Posted on November 7, 2019 by Jennie Spotila

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 →

Posted in Advocacy, Commentary, Research | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

I’ll Make It Simple

Posted on June 5, 2019 by Jennie Spotila

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 →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 63 Comments

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

Posted on April 17, 2019 by Jennie Spotila

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 →

Posted in Advocacy, Commentary, Research | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

Return on Investment II: David Tuller

Posted on April 8, 2019 by Jennie Spotila

Last year, I fully endorsed Dr. David Tuller’s crowdfunding appeal in support of his investigative reporting on ME. This year, I am happy to endorse Tuller’s fundraising once again. The progress report that accompanies Dr. Tuller’s fundraising request (and also … Continue reading →

Posted in Advocacy, Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Who Reviews ME/CFS Applications for NIH?

Posted on February 5, 2019 by Jennie Spotila

Note: After publishing this post, I discovered that I had inadvertently missed one meeting in 2017. This post was updated on February 12, 2019 to reflect all new calculations. The changes are not significant enough to alter any conclusions. There … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Research | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 30 Comments

NIH Obstacles Thwart ME Research

Posted on January 10, 2019 by Jennie Spotila

After I published my post on the NIH Obstacle Course (November 2018), readers’ reactions made clear that a shorter version of the article could be useful. Today, STAT published that shorter article in the First Opinion section. You can read … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

NIH’s Obstacle Course to Success for ME/CFS Researchers

Posted on November 29, 2018 by Jennie Spotila

A shorter version of this article was published on STATNews on January 10, 2019. One message dominates NIH’s talk about ME/CFS research: submit more high quality grant applications. Funding would increase if there were more high quality grant applications. Give … Continue reading →

Posted in Advocacy, Commentary, Research | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

NIH Funding for ME Goes Down in 2018

Posted on October 21, 2018 by Jennie Spotila

Updated May 29 and October 16, 2019 with additional funding numbers. Fiscal year 2018 is over, so now we can answer the question of whether ME research funding at NIH would go up or down. As I predicted back in … Continue reading →

Posted in Advocacy, Commentary, Research | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 30 Comments

How To Be Sick . . . Again!

Posted on October 2, 2018 by Jennie Spotila

Toni Bernhard has just published a second edition of her classic How To Be Sick, or as I like to call it: The Book That Will Make You A Better Human. I have relied on How To Be Sick since … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Occupying | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments