Updated ME/CFS prevalence estimates reflecting post-COVID increases and associated economic costs and funding implications, 2022, Mirin, Jason et al

ABSTRACT

In this article, we update our earlier analyses of myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) economic impact and its National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding versus disease burden, taking into account the anticipated new cases of ME/CFS resulting from COVID-19.

Prior to the COVID pandemic, we estimated a United States ME/CFS prevalence of 1.5 million and an annual economic impact of $36–51 billion. Now, due to COVID and its resulting post-acute sequalae, we estimate total ME/CFS prevalence could rise to between five and nine million.

This would incur an annual U.S. economic impact of $149 to $362 billion in medical expenses and lost income, exclusive of other costs, such as disability benefits, social services, and lost wages of caretakers.

NIH funding for ME/CFS research would need to expand from the current amount of $15 million per year to approximately $472–$600 million annually, up to a 40-fold increase, to be commensurate with that of similarly burdensome diseases.

Open access: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21641846.2022.2062169

 

"Based on earlier research, we estimate the adult prevalence to be 0.0042 times the adult population [13], and the pediatric (ages 5–17) prevalence (PC) 0.0075 times the pediatric population in that age range [14]."

Just using the adult prevalence, and using the figure that Google gives me for the UK population of 2019, gives a pre-Covid UK patient population estimate of 280,728.

 

ME effects far fewer people than that.

See: https://www.s4me.info/threads/postexertional-malaise-syndrome.25362/page-2#post-414534

 

Yes, so you repeatedly claim.

 

Trial By Error: Two Reports on the Financial Burden of Long Covid and Its Impact on ME/CFS Prevalence

"On April 11th, Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health & Behavior, the journal of the International Association of CFS/ME, published an article called “Updated ME/CFS prevalence estimates reflecting post-COVID increases and associated economic costs and funding implications.” The senior author, Leonard Jason, is a psychology professor at DePaul University and an author or co-author of many, many dozens of articles about the illness. (Perhaps hundreds; I haven’t counted.) His co-authors, Arthur Mirin and Mary Dimmock, are independent researchers and patient advocates."

https://www.virology.ws/2022/04/20/...f-long-covid-and-impact-on-me-cfs-prevalence/