A Nobel Discovery

by Gertrud U. Rey On October 2nd, 2023, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced the award of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman. The decision was based on a series of fundamental discoveries that led to the development of the COVID-19 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. Katalin …

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Viruses and Bats

by Gertrud U. Rey Remember the series of flashbacks in the ending of the movie “Contagion,” which reveal where the virus originated and how the pandemic started? As a tree is cut down, a colony of bats flies out of the tree to seek new shelter. While in flight over a nearby farm, one of …

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How the Viruses Within Us Protect Us From Other Viruses

by Gertrud U. Rey Did you know that eight percent of the human genome consists of DNA sequences that are derived from retroviruses? These “endogenous retroviruses” (ERVs) represent concrete evidence for retroviral infections that occurred in our ancestors. Although ERVs have no viral activity, an accumulating body of evidence suggests that they are not entirely …

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Why Do Some Viruses Have a Seasonal Cycle?

by Gertrud U. Rey Have you ever wondered why some viruses circulate primarily in the winter and others are more prevalent in the summer? Although we don’t have a clear answer to this question, a combination of factors is likely responsible.   Work done in the field of respiratory viruses suggests that these viruses can …

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Why We Can’t Eradicate Poliovirus

by Gertrud U. Rey In 1988 the World Health Organization, Rotary International, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention passed the initiative to eradicate polio globally by the year 2000. We are now 23 years past this deadline, and it is increasingly clear that this goal will likely never be achieved. Smallpox …

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A Long-Awaited Vaccine

by Gertrud U. Rey Almost sixty years have passed since the initial formalin-inactivated respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine caused enhanced disease in children when they were subsequently infected with the virus. Since then, RSV has continued to be a substantial public health threat to infants, young children, and older people. Although progress in developing a …

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Trial By Error: NHS Lacks Policy on Severe ME, Per Testimony in Pre-Inquest Hearing on Death of Maeve Boothby O’Neill

By David Tuller, DrPH In January, I wrote a piece for Codastory.com about Maeve Boothby O’Neill, a young woman from Devon, England, who died from ME-related complications in October, 2021, at the age of 27. This week, at a pre-inquest hearing, it was revealed that the medical director of the hospital involved in Maeve’s care …

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Trial By Error: Interview with Founders of The Sick Times, a New Online Publication

By David Tuller, DrPH Earlier this month, Betsy Ladyzhets and Miles Griffis, two smart, young American journalists, announced the launch The Sick Times, an online publication focused on long Covid and related post-acute infection syndromes, including ME/CFS. I have met both of them in the last couple of years and have been impressed with their …

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Trial By Error: Column in Time Magazine Calls for Halt to Biomedical Long Covid Research

By David Tuller, DrPH *This is a crowdfunding month at UC Berkeley for my Trial by Error project. If you appreciate my work and would like to help support it, here’s the link for the November campaign. Time magazine recently published an opinion piece that calls for an end to biomedical research for long Covid—based, it seems, …

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Trial By Error: Cochrane Ends Silence on ME/CFS Exercise Review Developments

By David Tuller, DrPH *This is a crowdfunding month at UC Berkeley for my Trial by Error project. If you appreciate my work and would like to help support it, here’s the link for this November’s campaign. UPDATE: Cochrane has rejected Science For ME’s complaint, as discussed yesterday on a thread on the forum at around the …

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Trial By Error: Yet More Stupidity from the Dutch CBT Fan Club

By David Tuller, DrPH *This is a crowdfunding month at UC Berkeley for my Trial by Error project. If you appreciate my work and would like to help support it, here’s the link for this November’s campaign. As I pointed out last month when I reviewed a ridiculous study of “psychosomatic therapy” for “persistent somatic symptoms,” the …

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Trial By Error: A Conversation with Lisa McCorkell of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative

*This is a crowdfunding month at UC Berkeley for my Trial by Error project. If you appreciate my work and would like to help support it, here’s the link for this November’s campaign. By David Tuller, DrPH Lisa McCorkell is a co-founder of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative, a group of people with Long COVID and …

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