As I discussed in
Part One of the NIH Pilot Program, NIH thinks that the three (and only three) Collaborative Research Centers are seeds to generate interest in ME research, and will wait for more research applications to come in over time. NIH’s slow approach to case definition is going to take ten years (or more) to show results.
I have gotten a lot of feedback asking what we can do, or expressing despair that NIH will not move fast enough to help us. There are people with ME who have lost careers, families, financial support, and more, and when I come out with a post like that one, they lose hope.
But we have to face reality in order to demand that NIH face reality and act with urgency. Don’t lose hope; get mad. If you feel despair that there are still no treatments and NIH is just twiddling its thumbs and whistling innocently, then get MAD.
We are NOT powerless!!!!! Not by a long shot. I have ideas about what we can do, collectively and individually:
