David Tuller is a journalist and public health lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley Center for Global Public Health. He spent his early career covering HIV/AIDS, then pivoted to

ME/CFS Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), also called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or ME/CFS, is a complex, debilitating, long-term medical condition. The causes and mechanisms of the disease are not fully understood. Distinguishing core symptoms are ...

Career

His career in public health began with

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

advocacy in the 1980s. He is also the author of ''Cracks in the Iron Closet: Travels in Gay and Lesbian Russia'', a 1997 book on LGBT history and life in Russia based on Tuller's travels and interviews with LGBT Russians. Currently, he is a senior fellow in public health and journalism at a crowdfunded position at Berkeley. Before it was widely accepted as such, he advocated for the acceptance of

myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a debilitating long-term medical condition. People with ME/CFS experience lengthy flare-ups of the illness following relatively minor physical or mental activity. This is known as ...

(ME/CFS) as a biological condition. In 2015, he published "Trial by Error," a four-part article criticizing the design of the

PACE trial The PACE trial was a large and controversial trial which compared the effects of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), graded exercise therapy (GET), adaptive pacing therapy, and specialist medical care for people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/ch ...

, a controversial study that claimed CBT and graded exercise therapy were effective treatments for ME/CFS, and alleging conflicts of interest among the trial's investigators. Proponents of the controversial psychosomatic model, many of which were behind the PACE trial, accused their critics of harassment. Tuller disputed that his work encouraged this, saying his activities follow academic standards. Later, the claims of harassment were found to be “wildly exaggerated” by a tribunal judge.

Publications

* ''Cracks in the Iron Closet: Travels in Gay and Lesbian Russia'' (1996, Faber and Faber, ) * (2017, Journal of Health Psychology) * (2019, Health Psychology Open) * (2022, Occupational Medicine)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tuller, David ME/CFS activists 21st-century American journalists American online journalists American medical journalists American science journalists University of California, Berkeley fellows Writers on LGBTQ topics 1950s births Living people