WASHINGTON — Malcolm Gladwell, the New Yorker writer, has written a series of books exploring the sociological dimensions of success and failure. In his latest, "David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants," Gladwell celebrates the many Davids who triumphed over the odds because they were nimble and resourceful.
If he wants to observe a classic David-versus-Goliath rumble, Gladwell might want to go to Washington on Tuesday — Dec. 10. He will see a frail woman go up against the federal government with a humble petition and a small following of mostly very sick people.
Her name is Susan Kreutzer and she suffers from the debilitating and mysterious disease Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), also known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, which is the name that patients favor.
Kreutzer and others will begin their demonstration at 9 a.m. outside the headquarters of the Department of Health and Human Services on Independence Avenue, where she will hand over a petition. Then she will move up the street to Capitol Hill to demonstrate and hand-deliver petitions to members of Congress. She will end her day of petitioning her government outside the White House.
Her petition seeks more federal funding for research into the disease and a halt to federal efforts to reclassify it....
The first and major complaint of all those in researching the disease and those suffering from it is that NIH spends a trifling $6 million on this circle of hell that could have been invented by Dante.
The second and immediate source of anger laced with despair is that NIH has, apparently arbitrarily, decided to have the clinical definition of the disease reclassified and has diverted a precious $1 million to this purpose.
Still nobody knows why NIH wants to reclassify the disease. One school of thought is that NIH would like to abandon the current and well-accepted diagnostic criteria, known as the Canadian Consensus, in order to treat the disease as more of a mental one rather than a physical one.
Thirty-six leading researchers and physicians from the United States, risking retribution in funding, protested the move but have been ignored. They were joined by colleagues from abroad, bringing the blue-ribbon protesters to 50.
I approached HHS for a comment and for a word with Dr. Howard Koh, the assistant secretary in charge, but have received no response.
Will this David, Susan Kreutzer, fell this Goliath, HHS?
