Compilation of ME articles in 2021

Here's a compilation of the largest ME articles mentioned in the weekly news brief throughout the year.

This is third year in a row such an overview has been made for the forum.
In 2019 it was 10 articles that made the list.
In 2020 it was 46.
This year it's 99 articles.

The high number is much because of Long Covid and the NICE guideline, I've also included a few more local news outlets and the list is a bit more international this year. But nevertheless, perhaps we're also seeing a trend of more reporting of ME in media?

January

• The San Diego Union-Tribune Long-haul COVID cases shed new light on chronic fatigue sufferers
• US News Why Does ‘Mono’ Sometimes Turn Into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?
• New York Times What If You Never Get Better From Covid-19?
• The Guardian We’re about to see a wave of long Covid. When will ministers take it seriously?
• The Sun Covid Kids - Our kids were left unable to eat or walk by Long Covid and treatment was ‘torture’ - but docs don’t know how to help
• Medscape Long-COVID Cases Rise as Stigma of Chronic Fatigue Taunts
• Daily Mail Long Covid patients are told to exercise despite crippling fatigue

February

• ABC The Conversation Hour Is society getting better at understanding people living with invisible illness?
• TNR The Forever Disease: How Covid-19 Became a Chronic Condition
• ZDF Immer erschöpft - Das Fatigue Syndrom (Always exhausted - the fatigue syndrome)
• Newsweek Covid-19 Could Increase Dementia, Other Brain Disorders for Decades to Come
• ABC Nightlife The Writers: The Puzzle Solver by Tracie White

March

• The Mainichi Man in Japan with rare disease calls for understanding after being slandered online
• Vox Long Covid isn’t as unique as we thought
• CNN A Stanford scientist’s quest to cure his son could help unravel the mystery of Covid-19 long-haulers
• The Mainichi Japanese experts suspect neuroimmune disease causing pain, fatigue as COVID-10 aftereffect
• BBC Long Covid: Warning over combining ME treatment
• Vice The Medical System Should Have Been Prepared for Long COVID
• Medscape Covid-19 ‘Long-Haul’ Symptoms Overlap With ME/CFS
• The Guardian Women are more susceptible to long Covid, but will we listen to them?

April

• People Scientist Ron Davis Is Fighting to Cure His Son’s Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: ‘It’s Like a Living Death’
• The Guardian Apparantly just by talking about it, I’m super-spreading long Covid
• TIME Black Women Are Fighting to Be Recognised as Long COVID Patients
• Science Friday What Does The Future Look Like For COVID-19 Long-Haulers?
• Vox Scientists haven’t figured out long Covid. Here are 5 of their best hypotheses
• PBS News Hour A Brief But Spectacular take on chronic illness
• The Science Breaker Overcoming this is going to be difficult: Suicide risk, stigma, and chronic fatigue syndrome
• .coda Chronic fatigue syndrome patients, long victimised by discredited research, turn to a dubious self-help program
• Medpage Today Vaccines and Long COVID: Top NIH Leaders Weigh in at Neurology Meeting

 

May

• Svenska Yle “Det är inget annat än hjärntvätt” - HUS förespråkar kontroversiell vård till patienter, också postcovidpatienter har hänvisats till samma klinik (“It’s the same as brainwashing” - Helsingfors University Hospital recommends controversial treatment to patients, also post covid patients have been referred to the same clinic)
• CTV News Some COVID-19 long-haulers are developing a ‘devastating’ syndrome
• RTÉ The similarities between long Covid and chronic fatigue syndrome
• CapeTalk Do you think you have chronic fatigue syndrome? Here’s what you need to do
• independent.ie ‘My world has become so small. Constantly managing chronic pain and dealing with brain fog and memory loss is my normal’
• Der Tagesspiegel Chronisches Fatigue Syndrom 100.000 Erkrankte mehr aufgrund von Covid-19 (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome 100,000 more sufferers due to Covid-19)
• Berliner Kurier Für immer in Quarantäne: Warum eine 56-jährige Berlinerin seit Jahren ihr Haus nicht verlassen hat (Forever in quarantine: Why a 56-year-old Berliner hasn’t left her house for years)
• ZDF Chronisch erschöpft: ME/CFS (Chronically exhausted: ME/CFS)
• Svenska Dagbladet En miljon britter har postcovid: “Sa att jag inbillade mig” (One million Brits have post Covid: “Said I was imagining it”)

June

• Le Devoir Une maladie ignorée mise en lumière par la COVID longue durée (An ignored disease brought to light by long COVID)
• Le Devoir Une similitude évidente avec la COVID longue durée (A clear similarity to long COVID)
• Le Devoir Une maladie négligée par la recherche (A disease neglected by research)
• Nature The four most urgent questions about long COVID
• BBC Future What Covid-19’s long tails is revealing about disease
• The Guardian Why are women more prone to long Covid?
• New Scientist Long Covid: We have ignored post-viral syndrome for too long
• New Scientist Long Covid: Do I have it, how long will it last and can we treat it?
• The Guardian ‘I felt betrayed’: how Covid research could help patients living with chronic fatigue syndrome

July

• Arte Living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• U.S. News Meet 3 black Women Fighting for Long COVID recognition

 

August

• The Times Experts quit over call to drop exercise as treatment for ME
• The Times Long Covid and chronic fatigue - your questions answered
• The Times Link between long Covid and ME could transform the lives of sufferers
• The Times ‘Doctors told me I needed to accept my fate, but I continue to search for a silver bullet’
• The Times Jennie Jacques on living with ME: ‘I am a shadow of mye former self physically”
• STAT News Delay of British chronic fatigue syndrome guidelines is a setback for people with long Covid
• UnHerd What we’re not being told about ME
• Live Science What chronic fatigue syndrome can teach us about ‘long COVID’

September

• Medscape Trending Clinical Topic: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• The Guardian Withdrawal of planned guidance on ME upsets patients
• The Atlantic Long-Haulers are fighting for their future
• The Scientist Mechanism of long COVID Remain Unknown but Data Are Rolling In
• New Atlas Long COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome share striking similarities
• DW News Recovered, but still not healthy: How long COVID affects people around the world (YouTube video)
• The Irish Times Long Covid care: ‘There has been a sense of swimming upstream on my own’
• Science Norway ME/CFS may be linked to failure in energy supply to the cells
• 702. The ME CFS Foundation South Africa founder and director Retha Viviers shines the spotlight on myalgic encephalomyelitis.
• Sveriges Radio De mystiska sjukdomarna postcovid och ME - kan forskarna lære av varandra? (The mysterious diseases post Covid and ME - can the researchers learn from each other?)
• independent.ie Doctors urges to look out for chronic fatigue syndrome in long Covid patients

October

• The New Statesman “Society is ableist”: Alice Hattrick on gender, chronic illness and long Covid
• Bloomberg Law Long Covid Doubles Burden of Mystery Illness Few Doctors Treat
• The Times Delays to ME guidelines ‘are putting patients at risk’
• inews Chronic fatigue syndrome: delay in publishing new ME treatment guidelines ‘puts more people at risk’
• Daily Mail Chronic fatigue patients insist ‘cruel’ exercise therapy should be banished, while doctors claims it is one of the few things that works… so who is right?
• Pulse Today NICE to publish ME/CFS guidelines after final meeting next week
• The Times ME patients won’t be told to do more exercise
• The Guardian ME exercise therapy guidance scrapped by health watchdog Nice
• BBC Chronic fatigue syndrome advice scraps exercise therapy
• The Independent Graded exercise therapy ‘should no longer be recommended for people with ME’
• inews Chronic fatigue syndrome: controversial exercise therapy removed from new treatment guidelines
• The Telegraph Stop prescribing exercise to ME sufferers, doctors told
• The National ME patients recommended new treatments by health watchdog
• Manchester World ME exercise therapy ditched over concerns it could be harmful for people with chronic fatigue syndrome
• Pulse Final ME/CFS NICE guidelines recommends ‘personalised care and support plan’
• Medscape NICE Published Delayed ME/CFS Guidance After Summer Controversy
• BMJ News ME/CFS: Exercise goals should be set by patients and not driven by treatments plan, says NICE
• 10 news In-Depth: researchers find similarities between long COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome

 

November

• Technology Networks Podcast Opinionated Science: Finding Answers for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Mesothelioma
• The Genetics Podcast The DecodeME team on the challenges facing myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome patients and the future of personalised treatments
• The journal.ie Irish ME patients hope HSE will follow UK and scrap exercise therapy guidance
• The Washington Post Could long covid unlock clues to chronic fatigue and other poorly understood conditions?
• Dagens Medicin Patientforening: Danmark halter bagud på ME (Patient organisation: Denmark is lagging behind when it comes to ME)
• The Irish Times The long and short of it - ‘Long-Covid’ is not unique in viral illnesses
• NPR For some patients, long COVID is their new reality
• Stavanger Aftenblad Seks år, 22 behandlinger og godt over 2000 dager innendørs. Små anstrengelser gjør henne sykere (Six years, 22 treatments and over 2 000 days spent indoors. Small exertions make her worse)
• The Atlantic Health-Care Workers With Long COVID Are Being Dismissed

December

• NPR For patients with long COVID, chronic fatigue syndrome may offer a guiding star
• PhillyVoice Chronic fatigue syndrome may provide valuable insights into long COVID
• WYPR Living with long haul COVID: View from doctors, advocates, survivors
• The Canary ME: The year in review - sickness, lies and subversion

 

Great work Kalliope

 

My pleasure. It's nice to see so many good articles from 2021.

I'm grateful for both the journalists who have done their research job well and especially for the patients who have told their stories. It takes courage to do that, and many probably had to pay a price afterwards.

 

Yes it should. Thank you, @Sly Saint! Will correct.