Congress is waking up to the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome epidemic.

The Senate Resolution (S. Res 225) in support of International Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness Day is now the official stance of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House introduced a matching resolution (H. Res 399) this week.

On May 23, 2019, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution “Supporting the Goals of International Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness Day.” The Bi-partisan resolution was led by Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts and the matching resolution introduced the same week in the U.S. House of Representatives was led by Representative Zoe Lofgren of California.

This victory was one of the targets of ME/CFS Advocacy week (April 1 – April 7,2019), a Solve M.E. nationwide effort to raise awareness, advocate for increased federal funding, and tell the stories of people with ME/CFS.

Our 3rd Annual ME/CFS Advocacy Day in Washington DC, in partnership with #MEAction, drew over 240 registered ME/CFS advocates to attend 185 meetings (23 of them member-level!) with members of Congress and their staff.

Thanks to the combined efforts of our community, the US Senate has taken a stand for ME/CFS! This action was a joint partnership between Solve M.E., #MEAction, and the Massachusetts ME/CFS&FM Association.

The two Resolutions were co-sponsored by the following Members of Congress:

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA)

Senator Susan Collins (R-ME)
Senator Chris Coons (D-DE)
Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
Senator John Hoeven (R-ND)

Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA-19)
Representative Jack Bergman (R-MI-01)
Representative Debbie Wasserman Shultz (D-FL-23)
Representative Dave Joyce (R-OH-14)

Below is the full text of the resolution which passed in the U.S. Senate and was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives:

Supporting the goals of International Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness Day.

Whereas the National Academy of Medicine (referred to in this preamble as “NAM”), formerly known as the Institute of Medicine, has found Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (referred to in this preamble as “ME/CFS”) to be “a serious, chronic, complex, and systemic disease that frequently and dramatically limits the activities of affected patients”;
Whereas between 836,000 and 2,500,000 individuals of all ages, races, and sexes in the United States are believed to be afflicted with ME/CFS, with millions more afflicted by ME/CFS worldwide, and the vast majority of individuals with ME/CFS are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed;
Whereas ME/CFS is approximately 4 times more prevalent in women than in men;
Whereas ME/CFS is a chronic disease with no known cure and leaves \1/4\ of individuals with ME/CFS housebound or bedbound for extended periods of time;
Whereas 50 to 75 percent of individuals with ME/CFS cannot work or attend school;
Whereas medical expenses and lost productivity related to ME/CFS cost the economy of the United States an estimated $17,000,000,000 to $24,000,000,000 annually;
Whereas the cause of ME/CFS is unknown, there is no diagnostic test for ME/CFS, and there is no treatment for ME/CFS that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration;
Whereas NAM has noted a “paucity of research” on ME/CFS and that “more research is essential”;
Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called ME/CFS “America’s Hidden Health Crisis”;
Whereas individuals with ME/CFS struggle to find doctors to care for them, and ME/CFS is included in less than \1/3\ of medical school curricula;
Whereas, in recognition of the dearth of research on ME/CFS and the profound impact that the disease has on individuals with ME/CFS and their loved ones and caretakers, the National Institutes of Health (referred to in this preamble as the “NIH”) is “committed to unraveling the underlying biologic cause(s) of ME/CFS as swiftly as possible, and promoting research that will inform the development of effective strategies for treatment and prevention of this devastating condition”;
Whereas, in 2017, 11 Institutes at the NIH and the Office of the Director of the NIH contributed more than $7,000,000 in grants to assist in establishing Collaborative Research Centers and a Data Management Coordinating Center to improve the coordination of ME/CFS research and help accelerate understanding of ME/CFS; and
Whereas, in 2019, May 12 is recognized as International ME/CFS Awareness Day: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Senate/House of Representatives—

(1) supports the goals of International Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness Day;
(2) recognizes and affirms the commitment of the United States to—

(A) supporting research and medical education for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; and
(B) promoting awareness among health professionals and the public about Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; and

(3) recognizes the continued importance of—

(A) health care professionals and medical researchers who care for individuals with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; and
(B) those who work to discover the cause of, and develop and improve diagnosis of, treatments for, and a cure for, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

"The accomplishments for and by the HIV/AIDS Community may suggest goals for the ME/CFS Community. A lack of parity of research and benefits is logically and ethically difficult to justify."
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fped.2019.00131/full

The CFS/AIDS New Deal

The CFS/AIDS New Deal calls for equal funding for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and AIDS research, treatment, and prevention, and that they be researched side-by-side to determine if they are actually one epidemic. The CFS/AIDS New Deal also calls for a special institute to study the role of HHV-6 in the CFS/AIDS epidemic now that Bhupesh Prusty has made it clear that it is the key to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Please call your member of Congress and urge them to support the

CFS/AIDS New Deal.

Follow @HHV6_University

Tweet

On April 16, 1996, Congressman Jerrold Nadler spoke on the floor of Congress about his request for a General Accounting investigation into how the CDC had handled the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome epidemic. Nadler did that at the urging of Charles Ortleb, the publisher and the New York Native and his reporter Neenyah Ostrom. Ortleb and Ostrom had made the case to Nadler that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the virus it had been linked to, HHV-6, were serious public health issues.         
                                      
In an interview in New York Native with Neenyah Ostrom,Congressman Nadler said, "Congress can mandate research into CFS as a viral disease. Maybe it will turn out that HHV-6A is the cause of CFS; maybe it will turn out that other viruses are involved. But Congress can mandate research into CFS as a contagious, viral disease. I will certainly try to get Congress to do that as soon as possible."

Unfortunately, back in 1996, Nadler's warning to Congress and the medical establishment fell on deaf ears. But now that the Democrats have regained power in the House of Representatives, the newly prominent Congressman Nadler may finally be able to bring the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome epidemic and HHV-6 to the public's attention.

This book by Charles Ortleb, which details Neenyah Ostrom's diligent reporting on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, is necessary reading for anyone who wants to know the whole history of an epidemic which has been hidden in plain sight. For a decade, starting in 1988, Ostrom reported on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the damage that the virus HHV-6 does to patients. What her reporting uncovered about the true nature of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome epidemic will shock you. 

In The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic Cover-up, Charles Ortleb recounts his newspaper's fascinating struggle to get the medical and political establishment to pay attention to Ostrom's pioneering investigative reporting on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. 

By the time you finish Ortleb's stunning memoir, you will understand why the CDC has been unwilling to tell the public the truth about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The CDC does not want the public to know that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a transmissible illness linked to a virus that affects every system in the body. They have covered up the illness for so many decades that the neglected virus is totally out of control. Now it is causing a long list of other illnesses and many cancers. The CDC has put us all in danger.

Ostrom's decade of reporting on HHV-6 was recently vindicated by this statement from scientists at the University of Wurzburg:"While HHV-6 was long believed to have no negative impact on human health, scientists today increasingly suspect the virus of causing various diseases such as multiple sclerosis or chronic fatigue syndrome. Recent studies evensuggest that HHV-6 might play a role in the pathogenesis of several diseases of the central nervous system such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression or Alzheimer's." 

The big question about Neenyah Ostrom and New York Native is this: How many lives would have been saved if the scientific establishment and the mainstream media had paid more attention to Neenyah Ostrom's reporting on HHV-6 and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in New York Native?             

One day, if there is any justice in the world, the CDC and the medical establishment will apologize for not paying attention to Neenyah Ostrom's groundbreaking work on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that Charles Ortleb published in New York Native. That would be a fitting end to one of journalism's greatest David and Goliath stories.    

Anyone who wants to help Congressman Nadler and the other members of Congress who are trying to end the suffering of millions of people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, needs to read The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic Cover-up.

Click here to begin reading

Or purchase a print copy for only $20 shipped by Amazon Prime 

Purchase the book in Canada 

Purchase the book in Mexico

Purchase the book in the United Kingdom

Purchase the book in Germany

Purchase the book in France

Purchase the book in the Netherlands

Purchase the book in Spain

Purchase the book in Australia

Purchase the book in Japan

Purchase the book in India

Spotify podcasts about the HHV-6 and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome cover-up 

The HHV-6 University Report by on Scribd

Please support HHV-6 University by purchasing one or our books about the cover-up of the relationship between HHV-6 and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, AIDS, and many other immunological illnesses. Click book to read a free excerpt.