By David Tuller, DrPH
Today is the official “hard launch” of Berkeley’s month of crowdfunding. The “soft launch” phase began last Wednesday, when the site actually went live. I posted the Trial By Error page that day on Facebook. As of this posting, I’ve already reached 27% of my goal, with almost $26,000 in donations!
Things started with a burst and have of course slowed down. So far there are 225 donations, with 92 from the UK and 38 from the US. (Two of the US donors share my last name, so those people had no choice but to donate; I assume there are more than 36 non-Tuller Americans who support my work!). Norway and Australia come next, with 29 and 15 donors, respectively. In the last two years, there were around 1000 donations each time. It would be great to overshoot that total this year. Every donation helps, and I think it is important to demonstrate strength in numbers.
Last year, Professor Sharpe gave a great boost to my efforts when he whined on twitter about what researchers like him have to put up with and then linked to a blog endorsing my crowdfunding. That blog of course included a link to the crowdfunding site, so my donations shot up in the next few days. Many thanked Professor Sharpe profusely on twitter for reminding them it was time to donate. I myself thanked him publicly, although he did not respond.
In a similar vein, my new crowdfunding campaign is basking in some timely buzz from last month’s Reuters slam piece on horrible patients and horrible me (and horrible Dr Myhill). Although the story was undoubtedly convincing to many unacquainted with the facts, it was larded throughout with bias, propaganda and nonsense. The reporter tried to discredit my work, falsely portraying me as a rogue actor with no apparent current academic affiliation or professional status. Luckily, while a big Reuters article can do some damage, it won’t save the reputation of the PACE trial, nor will it save the CBT/GET treatment paradigm.
The reaction of the patient and advocacy to the Reuters piece is certainly one reason why my current crowdfunding took off quickly. The anger and dismay triggered by this unfair portrayal of the patient community and me is likely to continue to fuel the effort through the month of April. Perhaps the reporter will help me out even more and write a follow-up before the 30th!
But whether she does or not, here’s where you can help fund me for another year of work on Trial By Error:
Comments
7 responses to “April is Berkeley Crowdfunding Month!”
I would like to donate, but I do not trust online Banking. Can I use Pay Pale to send funds ?? Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and good work. Tell it like it is, please. We have lost another young man to Negligence and lack of respect for his person. These terrible, yet preventable deaths have to stop. Can you email me on rita.gacon@ntlworld.com ?? and give me instructions as to pass funds to you. I can always write cheque, but I am in the U.K., and it may not be accepted in your location. Please keep fighting for us. We cannot always do it for ourselves.
It’s a shame the minimum donation as $10. I’m sure there are a lot of ME sufferers that would love to contribute but $10 would be a stretch for.
It’s a measure of how effective David’s been that he’s now being attacked so viciously.
We need him to continue his work exposing how the false ME/CFS narrative has been constructed on flawed and unethical science and how it is still being perpetuated. Only when it is all debunked will biomedical research get the funding that is so desperately needed. The situation is probably worse in the UK, (and I suspect that’s why David receives more donations from the UK), but these models of healthcare (or rather lack of) are spreading out across the globe.
If you want to stop the spread and the rot, then seriously think about donating.
Sarah Myhill isn’t horrible, just totally mad. Not the best campaigner on patients behalf.
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