The Early Years Of The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic Cover Up

The definitive history of the intertwined Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and AIDS epidemics by the first publisher to devote a newspaper to their coverage.

This volume contains the first two books about the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome epidemic by the first publisher to devote a newspaper to the coverage of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and its relationship to the AIDS epidemic. The first book is the detailed history of Charles Ortleb's newspaper, New York Native, the only publication to tirelessly raise questions about everything the Centers for Disease Control was doing and not doing about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The second book contains a critical analysis of the forces and personalities that contributed to a cover-up of an epidemic that now threatens everyone's health.

The second volume of The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic Cover-up puts Charles Ortleb in the same league as historians like William L. Shirer and political thinkers like Hannah Arendt. Inspired by Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism," Ortleb weaves together a tapestry of the forces and personalities that played a major role in hiding the truth about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and AIDS from the public. He challenges most of the conventional wisdom about the science and politics of the two epidemics. Anyone who wants to know why the Centers for Disease Control cannot tell the truth about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome needs to know what the Centers for Disease Control is hiding about AIDS and why. Ortleb's second volume is uncompromising as it inexorably lays out the details of a narrative that will disturb anyone who is concerned about public health and the integrity of science and medicine.

From 1980-1997, a little newspaper in New York found itself at the center of one of the darkest chapters in the history of science and medicine. In Rolling Stone, David Black said New York Native deserved a Pulitzer Prize for its pioneering reporting on the AIDS epidemic. The number of important stories New York Native broke about AIDS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and AIDS fraud should have guaranteed several Pulitzer Prizes. Even Randy Shilts acknowledged the New York Native's unique coverage of AIDS in And the Band Played On. But the uncompromising nature of New York Native's investigative reporting ultimately made it a thorn in the establishment's side. The moral of the New York Native story is that no important and independent journalism goes unpunished. Books by Larry Kramer, David France, and others have disparaged and distorted the history and legacy of New York Native. It's time to correct the record.New York Native contains two previously published books by Charles Ortleb, the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of New York Native. The first book, The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic Cover-up, is a detailed history of New York Native's coverage of AIDS and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The second book, The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic Cover-up Volume Two, is Mr. Ortleb's continuation of New York Native's eye-opening reporting and critical thinking about the connection between AIDS and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.In 1989, Katie Leishman wrote in Rolling Stone, "It is undeniable that many major stories were Ortleb's months and sometimes years before mainstream journalism took them up." The two books In New York Native are dramatic evidence that Mr. Ortleb has not lost his touch or relevance and is still a leading intellectual and journalistic figure in one of the most consequential events of our time.

One day soon, the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome crisis will be coming to Broadway. This explosive play by the author of The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic Cover-up captures the complicated relationship he had with the celebrated intellectual, Susan Sontag.Charles Ortleb met Susan Sontag in 1973 at a gay conference in New York City. He was twenty-three and she was forty. Ortleb had recently moved to New York City and like many aspiring young writers at the time, was fascinated by Sontag. He couldn't believe his luck when she agreed to do an interview with him for a new magazine called Out.This is the first time that interview will reach a major audience, and there is one dramatic moment in which it almost seemed like Sontag was trying to come out of the closet. After asking a number of probing questions about her work, Sontag said to Ortleb, "You don't miss a thing, do you?"The play turns dark and disturbing as Ortleb describes his subsequent two meetings with Sontag in the late 70s and the late 80s. Ortleb, who ultimately published a newspaper and became the first publisher to take AIDS and Chronic Fatigue seriously, met with Sontag when she was working on her book about AIDS and warned her that his newspaper's reporting suggested the government was not being truthful about the nature of AIDS. The last time Ortleb saw Sontag, she hugged him and said, "You're very real to me."Ultimately, Sontag not only did not listen to his advice, but she went out of her way to indirectly attack Ortleb and his newspaper in her book AIDS and Its Metaphors. Ortleb is finally speaking out about this shocking development that occurred decades ago.Ortleb's discussion of Sontag's betrayal of their friendship and ultimately of the gay community, raises new issues about Sontag's character which many are now questioning. The play will dramatically change the way the public looks at AIDS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Susan Sontag.

This book was republished in 2018 with the title "The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic Cover-up." Charles Ortleb's Truth to Power takes you inside the New York Native, one of the most unique and consequential newspapers of the twentieth century. Shortly after starting his small gay New York City newspaper in late 1980, one of the biggest scientific and political stories of our time fell into his lap in the form of the AIDS and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome epidemic. What he did with that story has secured his newspaper's place in history. Under his guidance, a succession of intrepid journalists did some of their greatest work uncovering the crucial facts about the labyrinthine epidemic. Ortleb made the decision to follow the facts wherever they led. His team of uncompromising investigative reporters inevitably stepped on the toes of the most powerful people in the medical and political establishment. Perhaps not surprisingly, the latter fought back by seeking to discredit the New York Native and even, in time, close its doors. But Ortleb stood his ground for as long as possible and as a result the world now can have a clear understanding of the relationship of AIDS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and HHV-6, the transmissible virus that now threatens everyone on this planet. Anyone who has wondered why the medical establishment will not tell the truth about the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome epidemic will find the disturbing answer in Truth to Power. What makes Ortleb so unusual is that not only did he have the natural instincts of a journalist, editor and publisher, but he was also a poet, a fiction writer and a budding political philosopher. Truth to Power is not just a compelling work of journalism and history, but also a major contribution to the intellectual life of our time. "A rollicking, fascinating and important memoir."-Hillary Johnson, author of Osler's Web, Inside the Labyrinth of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic "Because of the extraordinary reporting of the New York Native, the city's gay community had been exposed to far more information about AIDS than San Francisco in 1981 and 1982."-Randy Shilts, And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic "The gay press-with the exception of the New York Native, which deserves a Pulitzer Prize for its comprehensive coverage [of AIDS]-hasn't been much better than the straight press." -David Black, Rolling Stone, April 25, 1985

Tenth year anniversary edition with an update by the author "A relentless, meticulous, and highly persuasive expos by a journalist who spent nine years investigating the medical research establishment's failure to take seriously chronic fatigue syndrome... In a chronology that runs from 1984 to 1994, Johnson crams in fact after telling fact, building up a dismaying picture of a rigid and haughty biomedical research establishment unwilling or unable to respond to the challenge of a multifaceted disease for which a causative agent has yet to be found... A compelling, well-documented account..."Kirkus Reviews

The onset can be fast and shocking or slow and insidious. It can happen to anyone at any age. A flu, a vaccination, or an infection can be the innocent beginnings to the potentially life-long and disabling illness called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), which is more commonly known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or ME/CFS in North America. In the mid 1980s, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) was called in by concerned doctors who were witnessing an influx of patients with a mysterious illness. Eventually the CDC labeled the condition “chronic fatigue syndrome” which turned out to be very misleading. Decades later, in 2016, health agencies are finally beginning to agree with international experts that ME/CFS is a serious, chronic, multi-system illness. Through artwork, poetry, story-telling, and meticulous research, Lighting Up a Hidden World: CFS and ME takes readers into the fascinating, yet frightening, landscape of ME/CFS. Author Valerie Free shares her personal experiences and delivers illuminating first-hand perspectives from patients, caregivers, journalists, and medical professionals from within the global community in short easy-to-read segments. These stories reveal the disgrace, controversy, and tragedy of worldwide neglect by political and health care systems, leaving ME/CFS research underfunded and millions of people marginalized, sick, and socially unsupported. Lighting Up a Hidden World: CFS and ME advocates for those too ill to speak out, abounds with patient resources, and offers realistic hope for the future. People living with this illness, along with their family and friends, will find compassion and camaraderie in its pages. This book reaches beyond the ME/CFS community exposing the themes of human suffering, resilience, and the need for social change.