Thank You Dr. Mangan

When I tell people I’ve been faxing cartoons to Francis Collins, Director of the NIH, they usually ask, “Have you gotten any reply?  How do you know they're getting through?”  And I say, “I just send them off, I don’t know if they're getting there!”  But, some weeks ago I got an e-mail reply to one of my cartoons —from Dr. Mangan, Chair of the Trans-NIH ME/CFS Research Working Group.  It was a substantive little email emphasizing that our concerns are not being ignored and that the Working Group is focusing on getting money to researchers outside NIH.  Good goal.  So, here’s my reply to Dr. Mangan.

But first, a few vocabulary terms and orientation points:  (1) The CFS-SEP is the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Special Emphasis Panel, a group of researchers who review grant applications.  (2) The CFS-SEP has been for some years populated with individuals with no relevant experience—especially dentistry kind of folks.  You can read more about it here. (3) An FOA is a Funding Opportunity Announcement — an invitation to researchers to submit competitive proposals for federal funding.

Double click to see bigger . . .

I Want You to Know, Mr. Collins . . .

Here's my latest activist cartoon faxed to Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health.  Click on image to enlarge.

Bugging Francis Collins Some More

Well, you’ve convinced me.  The positive comments on my first activist cartoons faxed to Francis Collins, director of the NIH, turned me around and decided me on sending more.

Click on image to see larger; click again on image that comes up to see nice and large.

I know I’ve had a lot of ME/CFS/XMRV activism posts lately, which may not be as interesting to some people, but it feels like we’re at a critical moment.  There’s a possibility that something may really change . . . and we have to do what we can to make sure it does.

Image reposted May 28, 2011.

Dear Mr. Francis Collins

Here’s the cartoon I faxed to Francis Collins, Director of the NIH, as part of the Time for Action campaign to get public officials serious about ME/CFS:

(Click once on each image to view larger.)

Based on the response, the organizers deemed the campaign a rapid success and called it off, asking everyone to send one final Thank You.  

I may draw those cartoons yet, though; this is just the beginning.

A bonus for me was discovering faxing cartoons as an accessible form of activism!