The AIDS bureaucracy  By Sandra Panem

Factors that led to consensus that human retroviruses did not exist
1. Failure to discover them after an extensive survey by many investigators in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
2. Ease of detection in animal models because of extensive virema.
3. Difficulties in growing primary human cells.
4. Results showing human sera with complement lysed animal retroviruses

From: The discovery of the first human retrovirus: HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 (via)

Illness as Metaphor is a nonfiction work written by Susan Sontag and published in 1978. She challenged the "blame the victim" mentality behind the language society often uses to describe diseases and those who suffer from them.
…
At the time that Sontag was writing, the current alternative cancer treatment fad was psychotherapy for the patient's supposed "cancer personality". According to these proponents, patients brought cancer upon themselves by having a resigned, repressed, inhibited personality. By undergoing the often blame-filled psychotherapy offered by some groups, such as the Simonton Center, the patient would overcome cancer by consciously choosing to give up the emotional benefits he or she created the cancer for, and be healed.

A university investigation found that Schatten was not a party to the fabrication of data and was unaware of it. The investigation reported that “Schatten’s only contribution as co-author was to suggest that a professional photographer take the dog’s picture”, that Schatten received over $40,000 from Hwang, including $10,000 in cash while attending a press conference after the 2005 paper was published and that Schatten nominated Hwang for foreign membership in the United States National Academy of Sciences and with others for a Nobel Prize. 

None of this was held by the investigation to rise to “research misconduct”, finding Schatten had only committed the lesser and otherwise unknown “research misbehaviour”. See e.g. here here here 

And look where he can still work:

Schatten’s webpage shows that he continued to publish and continues to hold the prestigious positions of Director, Pittsburgh Development Center; Deputy Director, Magee-Womens Research Institute; Professor & Vice Chair of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, and Cell Biology and Physiology, University of Pittsburgh; and Director of the Division of Developmental and Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Modafinil (Provigil, Alertec, Modavigil, Modalert, Modiodal, Modafinilo, Carim, Vigia) is an analeptic drug manufactured by Cephalon, and is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of narcolepsy, shift work sleep disorder, and excessive daytime sleepiness associated with obstructive sleep apnea. The European Medicines Agency has recommended that in Europe it be prescribed only for narcolepsy.

Dr. Bell thinks it helps some ME/CFS sufferers with their symptoms.

Dr. Bell: Oxidative stress cause the production of isoprostanes. Isoprostanes cause the orthostatic problems in ME/CFS, due to low blood volume.

And my take is that the oxidative stress is a response to intracellular pathogens.

Dr. Lapp on NMDA and GABA in ME/CFS (and other details).

Reisz notes that human susceptibility to oral infection has some parallels to those of ancient reptiles that evolved to eat a diet incorporating plants in addition to meat. "Our findings suggest that our own human system of having just two sets of teeth, baby and permanent, although of obvious advantage because of its ability to chew and process many different types of food, is more susceptible to infection than that of our distant ancestors that had a continuous cycle of tooth replacement."

Your teeth have a purpose: to help you consume food. They are optimal for food, that is optimal for you. If many people get problems with their teeth, maybe the food is not optimal for their body, and not only their teeth?

Trotz Fortschritten in der Diagnostik bleiben immer noch ca. 50% der viralen Meningitiden ätiologisch ungeklärt!

I will light the match this mornin', so I won't be alone
Watch as she lies silent, for soon light will be gone
I will stand arms outstretched, pretend I'm free to roam
Oh, I will make my way through one more day in hell
How much difference does it make?
How much difference does it make?

I will hold the candle till it burns up my arm
Oh, I'll keep takin' punches until their will grows tired
I will stare the sun down until my eyes go blind
But, I won't change direction, and I won't change my mind
How much difference does it make?
How much difference does it make?

I'll swallow poison, until I grow immune
I will scream my lungs out till it fills this room
How much difference?
How much difference does it make?

Pearl Jam – Indifference

Wenn in einem Gebäude in Deutschland 30 Menschen mit mehr als einem Symptom erkranken und zu 30 Ärzten gehen, erhalten sie 30 verschiedene Diagnosen. Nur wenn in einer Gemeinschaftseinrichtung 30 Leute gastrointestinale Beschwerden mit Erbrechen und Diarrhö entwickeln, fällt mit Sicherheit die Verdachtsdiagnose "Norovirus". Das kennt man aus den Medien. E. Coli oder Yersinien wären als Ursache gerade schon "out". Bekommen 30 Menschen Kopfschmerzen, Schwindel, geschwollene Lymphknoten, bleierne Erschöpfung, Hautausschläge, Magen-Darm-Probleme, massive kognitive Probleme und Schmerzen, führt dies jeder Einzelne mit an Sicherheit grenzender Wahrscheinlichkeit zunächst auf seine individuelle Situation zurück: Stress! Oder das Wetter... immer wieder das Wetter.

KK Knox: High EBNA-1 titeters correlate with higher autoantibodies.

Don't become a soldier.

In the midbrain, white matter volume was observed to decrease with increasing fatigue duration. For T1-weighted MR and white matter volume, group?×?hemodynamic score interactions were detected in the brainstem [strongest in midbrain grey matter (GM)], deep prefrontal white matter (WM), the caudal basal pons and hypothalamus.  A strong correlation in CFS between brainstem GM volume and pulse pressure suggested impaired cerebrovascular autoregulation.

“In my experience, morgellons patients are doing the best they can to make sense of symptoms that are real. They’re suffering from a chronic itch disorder that’s undiagnosed. They have been maltreated by the medical establishment. And you are welcome to quote me on that,” she adds….  “That they have insects on them is a very reasonable conclusion because, to them, it feels no different from how it would if there were insects on them. To your brain, it’s exactly the same. So you need to look at what’s going on with their nerves. Unfortunately, what can happen is a dermatologist fails to find an explanation and jumps to a psychiatric one.”

"If I don't know what the patient has and I can not figure it out, then it must be all 'in their heads'." Why do doctors think like that?