David Tuller

David Tuller, DrPh, is academic coordinator of University of California Berkeley's joint masters program in public health and journalism. He was a reporter and editor for ten years at the San Francisco Chronicle, served as health editor at Salon.com and frequently writes about health for The New York Times.

He's an experienced public health activist with a background as an ACT UP/NY activist which included an arrest at the Wall Street demonstration in 1987.

David Tuller covered the PACE trial results for the New York Times as health editor in February 2011. However he became concerned about the trial and wrote a further article regarding case definitions which resulted in an immediate response from the PACE trial authors which resulted him in investigating the the trial and its authors further after contact with others in the patient community.

Tuller is sympathetic toward the cause of the myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) patient community. In an article in 2015 he wrote:

"In the course of my reporting, I’d realized that the disease was both devastating and widely misunderstood. People were really, really sick—some were homebound for months and years at a stretch. Yet their condition had been saddled with one of the most condescending names ever given a major illness."

Talks & interviews

• Feb 20 2017, Chronic Fatigue: Missing Millions (Carte Blanche DSTV)

• Oct 29 2016, Undark Podcast #8: Worse Than the Disease Dr. Tuller Graded Exercise Therapy (GET) commonly prescribed for chronic fatigue syndrome — one for which supporting research is now unraveling.

• Aug 21 2016, Virology blog Podcast: TWiV 403: It’s not easy being vaccine Discussion with David Tuller regarding PACE trial at 00.17.38- 00.23.57.

• Jul 10 2016, Virology blog Podcast: TWiV 397: Trial by Error, Dr. Tuller speaks at length and in detail about the PACE trial (calling the PACE Trial preposterous and a pack of nonsense, and a piece of crap) and FINE trial, The Lancet, British Medical Journal (BMJ) and PLOS ONE, patients being ill yet deconstructing the PACE Trial, how ME/CFS is a disease being treated inappropriately with Exercise, GET and CBT, touches on the Institute of Medicine report and SEID, Valerie Eliot Smith and Karina Hansen, and more.

• Feb 28 2016, Speech on PACE Trial with Q&As in Amsterdam.

• Feb 27 2016, Discussed the flaws of the Pace trial with Frank Twisk while in Amsterdam at The Forgotten Plague Conference.

• Feb 6 2011, Virology blog podcast: TWiV 119: Science and journalism with David Tuller. Dr. Tuller appeared as a guest on Vincent Racaniello's podcast.

Awards

• 2016, IACFS/ME Special Service Award - for outstanding personal effort and contribution to the CFS/ME community
• 2016, Tymes Trust Award for Scientific Journalism

Online presence

• Twitter

Writings about ME/CFS

• May 22 2017 Trial By Error, Continued: ME Research UK Drops Out of CMRC
• May 15 2017 Trial By Error, Continued: The CMRC Affirms Full Support for Libelous Esther
• May 10 2017 Trial By Error, Continued: CMRC to Virology Blog: “F**k Off!”
• May 8 2017 Trial By Error, Continued: An Open Letter to the Board of the CFS/ME Research Collaborative
• May 3 2017 Trial By Error, Continued: My Libelous Blogging on Virology Blog
• Mar 23 2017 An open letter to Psychological Medicine, again!
• Mar 18 2017 The New York Times, Getting It Wrong on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (with Julie Rehmeyer) and Letters of response' Letters - The New York Times
• Mar 13 2017 An open letter to Psychological Medicine about “recovery” and the PACE trial
• Nov 28 2016 Trial By Error, Continued: A Follow-Up Post on FITNET-NHS
• Nov 21 2016 Trial By Error, Continued: The New FITNET Trial for Kids
• Oct 27 2016 Worse Than the Disease
• Sep 22 2016 Trial By Error, Continued: The Real Data
• Sep 6 2016 Open letter to Queen Mary University of London about PACE
• Sep 1 2016 Trial By Error, Continued: My Questions for Lancet Editor Richard Horton
• Aug 29 2016 Once Again, Lancet Stumbles on PACE
• May 23 2016 An open letter to PLoS One.
• Feb 10 2016 An open letter to The Lancet, again
• Feb 4 2016 Reexamining Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research And Treatment Policy
• Feb 1 2016 Trial By Error, Continued: A Few Words About “Harassment”
• Jan 19 2016 Trial By Error, Continued: More Nonsense from The Lancet Psychiatry
• Jan 19 2016 At least we’re not vexatious
• Jan 7 2016 Trial By Error, Continued: Did the PACE Trial Really Prove that Graded Exercise Is Safe? (with Julie Rehmeyer)
• Jan 4 2016 Trial By Error, Continued: Questions for Dr. White and his PACE Colleagues
• Dec 22 2015 Revisiting the PLoS One economics analysis of PACE
• Dec 17 2015 A request for data from the PACE trial
• Nov 18 2015 "Reporter Excoriates Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study: I Stopped at 14,000 Words-Enough Was Enough"
• Nov 17 2015 "Trial by error, Continued: PACE Team’s Work for Insurance Companies Is “Not Related” to PACE. Really?"
• Nov 13 2015 "An open letter to Dr. Richard Horton and The Lancet"
• Nov 9 2015 "Trial By Error, Continued: Why has the PACE Study’s Sister Trial been Disappeared and Forgotten?"
• Nov 4 2015 "Trial By Error, Continued: Did the PACE Study Really Adopt a ‘Strict Criterion’ for Recovery?"
• Oct 30 2015 "David Tuller responds to the PACE Investigators"
• Oct 30 2015 PACE trial investigators respond to David Tuller
• Oct 23 2015 "TRIAL BY ERROR: The Troubling Case of the PACE Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study (final instalment)"
• Oct 22 2015 "TRIAL BY ERROR: The Troubling Case of the PACE Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study (second instalment)"
• Oct 21 2015 "TRIAL BY ERROR: The Troubling Case of the PACE Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study"
• Feb 10 2015 "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Gets a New Name"
• Nov 24 2014 Brains of People With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Offer Clues About Disorder - New York Times: Well (2014)
• Jan 27 2014 How "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" Obscures A Serious Illness
• Sep 18 2012 "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Back to Square 1"
• Feb 6 2012 "Fallout From Fatigue Syndrome Retraction Is Wide"
• Dec 26 2011 "Scholars Retract Another Study Linking Virus to Fatigue Syndrome"
• Dec 22 2011 "Fatigue Syndrome Study Is Retracted by Journal"
• Nov 23 2011 "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the CDC: A Long, Tangled Tale"
• Sep 22 2011 "Viral Theory Is Set Back in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study"
• Jun 1 2011 "2 Studies Examine Syndrome of Fatigue"
• Mar 4 2011 "Defining an Illness Is Fodder for Debate"
• Feb 17 2011 "Psychotherapy Eases Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Study Finds"
• Jan 3 2011 "Exhausted by Illness, and Doubts"
• Aug 24 2010 "Study Links Chronic Fatigue to Virus Class"
• May 30 2008 "Learning Firsthand About Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"
• May 30 2008 "What to Ask About Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"
• Jul 17 2007 "Chronic Fatigue No Longer Seen as 'Yuppie Flu'"

Learn more

• Berkeley Wellness - David Tuller

PACE trial A controversial study which claimed that CBT and GET were effective in treating "CFS/ME", despite the fact that its own data did not support this conclusion. Its results and methodology were widely disputed by patients, scientists, and the peer-reviewed scientific literature.

graded exercise therapy (GET) - A gradual increase in exercise or activity, according to a pre-defined plan. Focuses on overcoming the patient's alleged unhelpful illness beliefs that exertion can exacerbate symptoms, rather than on reversing physical deconditioning. Considered controversial, and possibly harmful, in the treatment or management of ME. One of the treatment arms of the controversial PACE trial.

PACE trial A controversial study which claimed that CBT and GET were effective in treating "CFS/ME", despite the fact that its own data did not support this conclusion. Its results and methodology were widely disputed by patients, scientists, and the peer-reviewed scientific literature.

BMJ The BMJ (previously the British Medical Journal) is a weekly peer-reviewed medical journal.