Stewart
Senior Member
- Messages
- 291
The worrying thing, as I see it, is that by posting these estimates for ME/CFS, NIH is not at all sending out the signal that the share for ME/CFS funding is predicted to increase, neither in absolute terms nor relative to other diseases.
I don't think we should read anything into that table at this point. Firstly because, as Londinium says, we can't conclude anything definite from those figures. And secondly because the the timing of the publication of these figures makes it very likely that they're intended as a lobbying tool for the NIH to use in their conversations with Congress about next year's budget.
"Before you vote to approve the President's budget Senator/Congressman/Congresswoman, you should probably look at these figures we've prepared to illustrate how a budget cut on this scale would impact the funding of research into condition xxxxxxxx that you've previously shown an interest in."
Francis Collins gave an interview to the Washington Examiner last week in which he made the same point - if the proposed budget cut goes ahead "virtually everything" the NIH does in terms of research would be affected.
If you're concerned by these figures, I suspect that the most useful thing you can do at this stage is to contact your representatives in Congress and ask them to oppose any attempt to reduce the NIH's budget - making it clear that research into ME/CFS needs a lot more funds, not less.