You might like to read the
thread I wrote on Dr Lerner's abortive infection theory, as this explains many of the details. Unfortunately no one has taken Dr Lerner's work forward: no one has actually tested the tissues of ME/CFS patients (eg muscle or brain tissue) for the presence of abortive herpesvirus infections. So it is only a theory, and does not have much empirical evidence to support it.
However, abortive infection does exist. As mentioned, in AIDS the HIV virus causes an abortive infection of the CD4 cells in the blood. In AIDS you eventually die because your CD4 cells die off, and you become subject to opportunistic infections. So abortive infections can kill.
In the body, you can have abortive infections in certain cell types (which by definition do not produce new viral particles) alongside normal productive infections in other cell types (which create new viral particles). Depending on the cell type, the virus may either create a productive or an abortive infection. It all depends on the cell.
So just because there is an abortive infection going on, it does not necessarily mean no viral new particles are made elsewhere in the body.
What I like about the abortive infection theory is that it offers an explanation of why herpesvirus antivirals take such an extraordinarily long time to work in ME/CFS. Antivirals normally work in a matter of weeks, but in the case of EBV, HHV-6 or CMV associated ME/CFS, Lerner found that it takes 1 or 2 years for the antiviral to take full effect.
Lerner points out that standard herpesvirus antivirals have no direct effect against abortive infections, so this is why he thought it takes such a long time. If a new antiviral could be developed which directly targeted abortive infections, it's possible that ME/CFS might be cured in a matter of weeks (assuming ME/CFS is indeed caused by abortive infection).