EiR Blog

Black death, Plague, Pandemic, Ring around the rosy, 150 million dead, millions more maimed and dying… In the dark ages the Spirit of the Virus was all that existed - a death wind that blew no good. There was no such thing as science; no microscope to give the virus the crystalline form we know today. However, the Spirit of the Virus lives on today and is breathed to life in its gullible victims. It is known by many names, Swine Flu, Avian Flu, H1N1, SARS, Ebola… The masses slurp in every whisper of news about the impending virus and with crazed minds suspecting every tickle in their throat, every cough of their neighbor. Like the shadows of a setting sun the Spirit of the Virus moves across the landscape enveloping all in its path who beckoned it with their fear. The Spirit of the Virus is fueled by fear....

Since Thursday of last week when news of research linking the XMRV retrovirus  to chronic fatigue syndrome hit the headlines many patients (and I suspect their doctors) have been wondering what exactly this finding means. The amount of media attention this discovery by the Whittemore-Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease (WPI) generated in the press was unprecedented. After having the WPI press release delivered to my email inbox, the next day my mum handed me a copy of The Independent (one of the major "serious" national newspapers in the UK) with a front page article asking 'Has science found the cause of ME?' There was also an editorial piece coming down squarely on the side of us much maligned chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) patients and concluding that it was about time we were taken seriously. It is rare to find any ME/CFS news in the mainstream media but the story was the same across...