Dolphin
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
David Tuller's Trial by Error Fall 2025
Help UC Berkeley raise $68,000 for the project: David Tuller's Trial by Error Fall 2025. Your gift will make a difference!
crowdfund.berkeley.edu
Trial By Error: Reporting on ME, ME/CFS, Long COVID, & so on...
Ten years ago this month, I launched Trial By Error with a 15,000-word investigation of the fraudulent PACE trial, which tested cognitive behavior therapy and graded exercise therapy as curative treatments for what was then being chronic fatigue syndrome. What I thought was a one-off somehow morphed into an extended academic project on psycho-behavioral research across a broad range of conditions, including what is known as Long COVID.
Amazingly, the pandemic and its consequences have rendered much of my earlier work relevant in a way I could never have anticipated. I had planned to end the project a couple of years ago, but decided to continue as I saw the same investigators I'd already criticized for their flawed research pursuing the exact same strategies in taking on Long COVID.
This current crowdfunding will cover my work on Trial By Error and my position at Berkeley from January-June, 2026. Assuming it goes well, there will be one more crowdfunding campaign next spring to cover July-December, 2026. I plan to retire from Berkeley at the end of 2026. (I will be 70 on October 10, 2026.)
I have been busy since last spring’s crowdfunding!!!
*I’ve written dozens of posts on Virology Blog, many explaining why awful papers about psycho-behavioral interventions for ME/CFS and Long Covid are, in fact, awful.
*I've covered news events and developments not only in the UK and US but also in multiple European countries as well as Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
*I've posted video interviews with Yale immunologist Akiko Iwasaki about the latest in Long COVID research, University of Edinburgh geneticist Chris Ponting about the DecodeME findings; Columbia University's Ian Lipkin about immune-related abnormalities in ME/CFS; the UK ME Association's Charles Shepherd about the UK government's pathetic plan for ME/CFS; and others.
*I recently wrote about people with Long COVID receiving inappropriate diagnoses of functional neurological disorder for The Sick Times, a terrific publication covering Long Covid with which I hope to stay engaged.
*I wrote formal letters of concern to journals seeking corrections for self-evident flaws and errors in published research
As I have always made clear, crowdfunding is the least favorite part of what I do. It goes without saying that I am also extremely grateful to everyone whose generosity over the years has helped me continue with this project.
One Final Note
Berkeley takes a 7.5% share as the university's standard fee for gifts, plus 2.5% as a credit card fee. Therefore, adding 10% to your donation will ensure that the full amount you intend is going toward the project itself. The donation is tax-deductible (for US taxpayers).
Thanks so much for your support. I really, really appreciate it, especially at this time of global trauma.
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A link to all of my posts on Virology Blog: https://trialbyerror.org/archives/
