Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Reading: New Year's Day


I love New Year’s Day!  No presents to wrap, rooms to clean or food to cook…  just me and a book.

I usually pick a fiction book for my New Year’s Day read, but this time I was curious about a new-to-me book called called Plague: One Scientist’s Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Autism and Other Diseases (2014) by Kent Heckenlively and Judy Mikovits.

The book chronicles Mikovits’ work over a 5 year period where she investigates the second retrovirus of her career, XMRV.  (The first was HIV.)  Her amazing journey starts with the creation of the Whittemore-Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease at the University of Nevada.  This part of her journey ends with her as a witness for the federal government against her former employer, Harvey Whittemore, for illegal campaign contributions. Along the way she encountered the prejudices surrounding Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), wandered into the minefield that is autism research, and struggled to maintain her faith in the profession to which she had dedicated her life.  She also published research regarding the retrovirus XMRV that linked it to CFS, prostate cancer, lymphoma, and eventually neurodevelopmental disorders in children.

Whom better than a research scientist to write about the state of the scientific research at present?  A second book to be released in March 2020 is titled Plague of Corruption: Restoring faith in the promise of science; one I will definitely pre-order and devour.  The next time I hear that "science" backs a claim, I will certainly think about Dr. Mikovits’ ongoing experiences, and adjust my enthusiasm accordingly.  I was already skeptical of "bias free research."  Reading the story of her personal experience opened my eyes to new ways multiple players can and do manipulate and influence what the public gets to hear and know about health science and research.




Cheryl Brown is co-creator of the Storytent and Bookwagon programs, QLNB's Community Literacy Coordinator, and long-time advocate for and facilitator of a variety of family literacy initiatives.