Hip
Senior Member
- Messages
- 18,189
In the 1980s, there was a huge increase in the incidence of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) .
Indeed, this huge increase became a major concern for disability insurance companies in the US, who as a consequence became obliged to fork out billions extra to cover disability payments for this massive wave of new ME patients.
This surge of new ME cases in the 1980s seemingly prompted the government in the US, in cahoots with the disability insurance industry, to create the spurious disease classification of chronic fatigue syndrome, which was very likely set up in a Machiavellian fashion as a condition having a psychological causal component (unlike the existing and otherwise identical disease category of ME, which was and is classified as purely neurological).
The fact that the definition of CFS included possible psychological causes was enough to let the disability insurance companies off the hook, in regards to paying billions in disability support to chronically sick ME patients. Using this newly-created disease of CFS, disability insurance companies could now refuse to provide disability support to ME patients, who were now re-labelled as CFS patients.
They could refuse to provide disability support because regulations are such that although insurance companies are obliged to provide lifetime disability support for chronic crippling physical diseases and conditions, they do not need to provide long-term disability payouts for psychological conditions.
So the invention of the duplicate disease classification of chronic fatigue syndrome helped the disability insurance industry to duck out of paying ME patients disability support, thus saving these insurance companies billions in the wake of this surge in ME incidence in the 1980s.
And of course, although the disability insurance industry's Machiavellian manipulations was only designed to save them money and maintain their profits, the result of inappropriately relabelling ME as CFS, with CFS's psychologically-flavored etiology, had huge repercussions beyond the disability insurance industry's profit-protection ruse.
As medical science started to erroneously reclassify ME as this "all in the mind" condition of CFS, doctors would often no longer treat ME patients seriously. And biomedical research into ME risked falling into the doldrums, as medical professionals, duped like everybody else by the disability insurance industry, incorrectly viewed ME as having a psychological rather than physiological cause.
(Note that disability insurance is also called: disability income insurance, or income protection).
Here are Some References for this Increase in ME Incidence in the 1980s:
This article (also attached here) by Dr Elizabeth Dowsett and Dr John Richardson states that for ME there was:
Here is says:
This article (also attached here) by Dr Elizabeth Dowsett mentions:
An article (also attached here) by Professor Hooper, et al states:
On page 655 of Hillary Johnson's book Osler's Web, it says:
Regarding this explosion of ME/CFS cases, UNUM's CFS Management Plan document stated:
Simon Wessely says in this 1989 paper that:
Here are Some References that Suggest the Disability Insurance Industry Very Likely Manipulated the CDC and Encouraged Bogus Medical Research in a Machiavellian Fashion:
Hillary Johnson, in her book Osler's Web, says the following about the creation of the CFS category:
This blog article is also interesting:
And I thought the following comment posted on this Medscape article (free login required) was very telling:
Some more articles on the CFS disease category psychologizing the illness for insurance purposes are found here:
Updated U.S. Illness Codes Perpetuate Medical Ignorance of ME/CFS
ME/CFS: TERMINOLOGY — Margaret Williams
Who benefits from 'CFS' and 'ME/CFS'?
OK, so the way the Machiavellian disability insurance industry may have manipulated government and medical science alike is one thing; but what actually caused this apparent huge increase in ME incidence in the 1980s, assuming it was a real increase, and not just an increase in diagnosis?
What could have caused a 5 to 8-fold worldwide increase in the incidence of ME? We look at some possibilities in the following sections:
Could the Introduction of the Poliovirus Vaccine Have Inadvertently Created the 1980s Explosion in ME/CFS Cases?
One possible cause of the 1980s explosion in ME/CFS cases might be the introduction of the polio vaccine in the late 1950s: This is because natural infection from poliovirus (which the vaccine eliminated from the wild) confers some cross-immunity against the ill effects of other enteroviruses such as coxsackievirus B and echovirus — two major viruses linked to ME/CFS.
This very real possibility is discussed in detail here.
Could the Increased Use of Pesticides Have Created the 1980s Explosion in ME/CFS Cases?
One factor that possibly might be a culprit is the large increase in pesticide usage that occurred from the 1960 to 1980. This increase is shown in the graph here:
Studies have shown that pesticide exposure significantly increases the risk of developing ME. Refs: 1 2. Pyrethroid pesticides have been linked to ME too. Ref: 1. Organochlorine pesticides such as DDT and dieldrin have also been linked to ME. Refs: 1 2. But most organochlorines have been banned for several decades now. So the significant increase in pesticide usage that peaked in the 1980s and has remained high ever since might explain the huge increase in ME incidence in the 1980s that has also remained high ever since.
.
Indeed, this huge increase became a major concern for disability insurance companies in the US, who as a consequence became obliged to fork out billions extra to cover disability payments for this massive wave of new ME patients.
This surge of new ME cases in the 1980s seemingly prompted the government in the US, in cahoots with the disability insurance industry, to create the spurious disease classification of chronic fatigue syndrome, which was very likely set up in a Machiavellian fashion as a condition having a psychological causal component (unlike the existing and otherwise identical disease category of ME, which was and is classified as purely neurological).
The fact that the definition of CFS included possible psychological causes was enough to let the disability insurance companies off the hook, in regards to paying billions in disability support to chronically sick ME patients. Using this newly-created disease of CFS, disability insurance companies could now refuse to provide disability support to ME patients, who were now re-labelled as CFS patients.
They could refuse to provide disability support because regulations are such that although insurance companies are obliged to provide lifetime disability support for chronic crippling physical diseases and conditions, they do not need to provide long-term disability payouts for psychological conditions.
So the invention of the duplicate disease classification of chronic fatigue syndrome helped the disability insurance industry to duck out of paying ME patients disability support, thus saving these insurance companies billions in the wake of this surge in ME incidence in the 1980s.
And of course, although the disability insurance industry's Machiavellian manipulations was only designed to save them money and maintain their profits, the result of inappropriately relabelling ME as CFS, with CFS's psychologically-flavored etiology, had huge repercussions beyond the disability insurance industry's profit-protection ruse.
As medical science started to erroneously reclassify ME as this "all in the mind" condition of CFS, doctors would often no longer treat ME patients seriously. And biomedical research into ME risked falling into the doldrums, as medical professionals, duped like everybody else by the disability insurance industry, incorrectly viewed ME as having a psychological rather than physiological cause.
(Note that disability insurance is also called: disability income insurance, or income protection).
Here are Some References for this Increase in ME Incidence in the 1980s:
This article (also attached here) by Dr Elizabeth Dowsett and Dr John Richardson states that for ME there was:
A 5-8 fold increment world wide, during the period 1980-1989, since when it has remained an endemic disease with periodic epidemic potential.
Here is says:
The original source for that statement is an article by Dr Elizabeth Dowsett, entitled "Research into ME 1988 - 1998 Too much PHILOSOPHY and too little BASIC SCIENCE!".In the mid 1980’s, the incidence of ME had increased by some seven times in Canada and the UK, while in the USA a major outbreak at Lake Tahoe (wrongly ascribed at first to a herpes virus) led to calls for a new name and new definition for the disease, more descriptive of herpes infection.
This article (also attached here) by Dr Elizabeth Dowsett mentions:
the pandemic between 1980 and 1989 when there was a seven-fold increase in incidence both here and abroad.
An article (also attached here) by Professor Hooper, et al states:
In the US in the late 1970s and 1980s there seemed to be a remarkable rise in incidence of a condition indistinguishable from ME, with manifestations of serious neuro-immune disease and profound incapacity, to the extent that the powerful insurance industry became alarmed.
The insurance industry was concerned that, because there is no National Health Service in the US: "the field could change from an epidemiological investigation into a health insurance nightmare."
On page 655 of Hillary Johnson's book Osler's Web, it says:
With a 500% increase in ME/CFS cases (which would require a lifetime of disability payouts), you can see the incentive for insurance companies like UNUM to cheat, and to manipulate the system so that they can avoid making these payouts.In April l994, however, one of the nation’s largest private providers of disability insurance, the UNUM Corporation, issued a press release revealing chronic fatigue syndrome claims to be the fastest-growing sector of their business. According to UNUM, claims for disability caused by CFS had increased 500 percent from 1989 to 1993, a bigger increase than any other category of disability.
During that five-year period, UNUM said, CFS-imposed disability had resulted in a 557 percent increase in claims by women; claims for CFS disability had risen 360 percent among men.
Regarding this explosion of ME/CFS cases, UNUM's CFS Management Plan document stated:
Source: Evidence submitted by Professor Malcolm Hooper to UK Parliament Select Committee March 2007"UNUM stands to lose millions if we do not move quickly to address this increasing problem"
Simon Wessely says in this 1989 paper that:
there is also an apparent epidemic of new cases [of ME/CFS]
Here are Some References that Suggest the Disability Insurance Industry Very Likely Manipulated the CDC and Encouraged Bogus Medical Research in a Machiavellian Fashion:
Hillary Johnson, in her book Osler's Web, says the following about the creation of the CFS category:
A small group of politically motivated and/or poorly informed scientists and doctors who were vastly more concerned about cost to insurance companies and the Social Security Administration than about public health. Their deliberate intention – based on the correspondence they exchanged over a period of months – was to obfuscate the nature of the disease by placing it in the realm of the psychiatric rather than the organic. The harm they have caused is surely one of the greatest tragedies in the history of medicine.
Source: Who benefits from 'CFS'
This blog article is also interesting:
In the 1980s, there were a series of cluster outbreaks throughout the United States of a disease that was probably Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) - except that the name and diagnosis was not used in the US. First the outbreaks were labeled Chronic Epstein-Barr Virus (CEBV), because a lot of cases seemed to start with mono, but that theory was soon discarded by NIH's point man on EBV, Stephen Straus. He then began using the phrase "the chronic fatigue syndrome" to identify the outbreaks in internal memos in 1986.
CFS convened a committee in 1988 to rename and define CEBV. There were specialists at the meeting who insisted the outbreaks were really cases of ME, but neither Gary Holmes from CDC, nor Straus from NIH, paid any attention to that. ME is not mentioned in either the body or footnotes of the resulting article, which became known because it gave the first definition for CFS: Holmes (1988).
The name and concept CFS was thus thrown out to the world in 1988. At the time, WHO was on ICD-9 (the 9th revision), but was no longer making changes to ICD-9 because they were getting ready to roll out ICD-10. And ICD-10 was released to the world in 1992.
Since CFS was not in ICD-9, as long as the US continued to use it, they were free to place CFS wherever they wanted. The US uses a modification of ICD-9 called ICD-9-CM (for "clinical modification"). In 1997, the US placed CFS in 780.71, under "Symptoms, Signs, and Ill-Defined Syndromes" in ICD-9-CM. And there it has remained for almost 20 years.
And I thought the following comment posted on this Medscape article (free login required) was very telling:
Note: The original Swiss Re Insurance webpage where Peter White makes the above comment has been archived here.Peter White fails to mention one important consideration when it comes to the diagnosis given to patients: CFS brings with it the danger of insurance companies turning down claims from patients.
White was happy to expand upon this when he was discussing the results of his PACE trial with his employers at Swiss Re:
"A final point specific to claims assessment, and a question we’re often asked, is whether CFS would fall within a mental health exclusion, if one applies to a policy. The answer to this lies within the precise exclusion wording. If the policy refers to functional somatic syndromes in addition to mental health, then CFS may fall within the exclusion. If the policy doesn’t refer to functional somatic syndromes as well as mental health then it would be difficult to apply.
The point made is that a diagnosis of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis or ME (a term often used colloquially instead of CFS) is considered a neurological condition according to the arrangement of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) diagnostic codes whereas CFS can alternatively be defined as neurasthenia which is in the mental health chapter of ICD10."
Some more articles on the CFS disease category psychologizing the illness for insurance purposes are found here:
Updated U.S. Illness Codes Perpetuate Medical Ignorance of ME/CFS
ME/CFS: TERMINOLOGY — Margaret Williams
Who benefits from 'CFS' and 'ME/CFS'?
OK, so the way the Machiavellian disability insurance industry may have manipulated government and medical science alike is one thing; but what actually caused this apparent huge increase in ME incidence in the 1980s, assuming it was a real increase, and not just an increase in diagnosis?
What could have caused a 5 to 8-fold worldwide increase in the incidence of ME? We look at some possibilities in the following sections:
Could the Introduction of the Poliovirus Vaccine Have Inadvertently Created the 1980s Explosion in ME/CFS Cases?
One possible cause of the 1980s explosion in ME/CFS cases might be the introduction of the polio vaccine in the late 1950s: This is because natural infection from poliovirus (which the vaccine eliminated from the wild) confers some cross-immunity against the ill effects of other enteroviruses such as coxsackievirus B and echovirus — two major viruses linked to ME/CFS.
This very real possibility is discussed in detail here.
Could the Increased Use of Pesticides Have Created the 1980s Explosion in ME/CFS Cases?
One factor that possibly might be a culprit is the large increase in pesticide usage that occurred from the 1960 to 1980. This increase is shown in the graph here:
Studies have shown that pesticide exposure significantly increases the risk of developing ME. Refs: 1 2. Pyrethroid pesticides have been linked to ME too. Ref: 1. Organochlorine pesticides such as DDT and dieldrin have also been linked to ME. Refs: 1 2. But most organochlorines have been banned for several decades now. So the significant increase in pesticide usage that peaked in the 1980s and has remained high ever since might explain the huge increase in ME incidence in the 1980s that has also remained high ever since.
.
Attachments
Last edited: