Daily Mail article : Are you tired all the time? You could be ill

But those might not be the factors that led to the association - unless they publish the individual factors, it's merely speculation on your part.

But infection, not necessarily viral does seem to be associated as a precipitating factor of a majority of ME cases (as opposed to stressful events only being a precipitating factor in a small minority of ME cases). I don't think the infection itself is that important. I don't think it is worth examining the minutiae of EBV for example, just because it seems to be a common trigger.

The stressful events could simply increase the risk of someone developing an infection in the first place - it might have a measurable impact, but isn't terribly interesting in the big picture. This risk could also be behavioural in terms of exposure, rather than requiring any sort of hypothesis of immune system suppression.

As to your latter comment, that is certainly interesting, but it is wildly speculative and well, I don't think it can really explain so many similar cases worldwide.