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Senate Action! Deadline Monday May 25

Emily Taylor

Senior Member
Messages
149
Location
Los Angeles, CA

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Tell Your Senator to SUPPORT INCREASED FUNDING FOR POST-VIRAL-DISEASE RESEARCH INTO ME/CFS!

Thanks to your hard work during ME/CFS Advocacy Week, the U.S. Senate is currently circulating our request to include ME/CFS research funding in the next COVID-19 package.

Ask your Senator to sign-on to this effort today!

Our champion, Senator Ed Markey, is leading our initiative to include ME/CFS research funding in future COVID-19 response legislation. If successful, this request would bolster ME/CFS research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by including an additional $60 million for expanded research opportunities looking at connections between ME/CFS and COVID-19 survivors.

ME/CFS epidemics have historically followed viral outbreaks and experts are estimating significant surges in ME/CFS cases following the COVID-19 pandemic. It is essential that as many Senators as possible join this action in a united voice to call for increased funding for post-viral-disease research into ME/CFS.

Please contact your Senators TODAY and ask them to ask them to sign-on to this effort.

 

Emily Taylor

Senior Member
Messages
149
Location
Los Angeles, CA
For folks who are able/interested in taking additional action, here's a sample email you can send to Senate offices and staff. If you'd like to get the contact information of your Senator's DC health staffer, email me at ETaylor@solvecfs.org - Let me know what State you live in and I will send you the email address for the right person.


Dear [NAME],
Thank you again for connecting with our team on April 21 about ME/CFS and COVID-19. We are so grateful for your time, especially during this turbulent crisis.
Following up on our previous conversation, I am pleased to share that Senator Markey is leading a sign-on letter to fund research initiatives on ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome) and COVID-19 survivors.
Up to
80% of cases of ME/CFS are initiated by a viral infection. And some researchers are predicting as many as 10% of COVID-19 survivors will still have symptoms in 6 months. In light of building evidence, I urgently urge Senator [LAST NAME] to support research and sign Senator Markey’s letter about ME/CFS and post-viral disease research.
You can review the letter at: https://solvecfs.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/COVID-19-ME.CFS-Markey-Letter-Support.pdf
Please contact Brianna Battle in the office of Senator Markey at: Brianna_Battle@markey.senate.gov by end of day Monday May 25 to confirm the Senator’s interest.
Thank you again for your time and support.
Sincerely,
{YOUR NAME}

Additional Materials that may be helpful:

· COVID-19 Recommendations from Solve M.E. (PDF) – an issue overview of post-viral ME/CFS following COVID-19
· What does COVID-19 portend for ME/CFS?” (PDF) – Dr. Mady Hornig, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Columbia University Medical Center
· Will There Be a Post-COVID-19 Form of ME/CFS?” – Dr. Anthony Komaroff, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Senior Physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Editor in Chief, Harvard Health Letter
· FY 21 House Appropriations Letters ME/CFS – LHHS & DEFENSE (PDF)
 

frozenborderline

Senior Member
Messages
4,405
So is this merely symbolic or is that funding going to happen. Also why are we asking as a community for such low amounts? 15 million a year does not give me hope. If we truly have allies in Congress they should understand that...