@joshualevy - just to clarify by unconditionally do you mean we should support any RFA?
Basically, yes. I'm sure you could create a fictional RFA so bad that it should not be supported ("RFA to fund PACE follow on" or something). But realistically, any RFA that funds research into ME/CFS should be supported strongly.
In particular, any complaints about the government agency having done bad in the past, can not stop future funding. Same for unknowns: not knowing who will get the money, what studies will be funded, or what results will be found. If you allow any of those types of complaints to stop your support, then de facto you are telling the government you don't care, and they will hear it as "fund something else".
That's an interesting point in itself: the competition is not fund vs. no fund. It is fund disease X or fund disease Y. If the disease X community is vocal in there support, but the disease Y community is conditional ("if you fund someone we like, then we'll support you") guess who is actually going to get funded?
Or, conversely, you should not expect government funding, and stop complaining that you are not getting it. I think that this is reasonable for someone who thinks the NIH, FDA, etc. are out to get them. Such a person will be against government funding, but also not complain about a lack of government funding. That is a consistent philosophy.
I imagine that for many, support would hinge on the parameters of the RFA.
If you go back and look at the actual postings complaining about previous RFAs, you'll see that they generally fall into the areas I listed below:
* That government agency has done bad before, so we should not support them.
* The person supporting that RFA (not in government) is someone I don't support or have disagreed with before, so I will not support the RFA.
* We don't know what researchers will get the money, so we should not support it (until we know).
* We don't know what research they will do, so we should not support it (until we know).
* We don't know what results they will find, so we should not support it (until we do).
I don't consider any of those to be parameters of the RFAs. The RFAs that I have seen have basically said N million dollars, at time Y, by agency X, aimed at ME/CFS, and leaves it to the agency to figure out the rest.
Joshua