Plague by Dr. Mikovits & Kent Heckenlively
“ME is now the most common chronic disease most people have never heard of until they acquire it.”
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that "Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disabling and complex illness."
It estimated that between 800,000 to 2,500,000 Americans suffer from ME/CFS, however, 90% of these people have never been diagnosed.
ME/CFS is a hotly debated multifaceted complicated malady. Naturally, the Doctors brave enough to devote their time, energy, resources, and research will become equally complex and polarizing.
Over the past 15 years, Dr. Mikovits has been both idolized and demonized by the scientific community for her work and research surrounding ME/CFS and retroviruses. She has gone from being published in the highly reputable journal Science to being abruptly fired, arrested without a warrant, and had her reputation as a scientist slandered.
Now, Dr. Mikovits is receiving even more attention with her recent comments, claims, and theories about the novel coronavirus COVID-19 and its borderline conspiracy origins. Her recent interview was removed from YouTube and multiple other websites and media outlets. However, this review is not about these other claims but rather the content of her co-authored book Plague.
It is week 22 of 52 in the Tim Challies 2020 reading challenge, and my task was to read a book on the New York Times bestseller list. Although I am completely out of my league and in absolute foreign territory, I chose to read and review Plague: One Scientists Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Autism, and Other Diseases.
I am not a doctor nor am I wise on medicine. My last Science class was High School Chemistry back in 2007. This review will be purely from a novice reader's vantage point, who admittedly has a personal tie to the effects of these debilitating illnesses.
After reading Plague, I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. It loses 1 star for clear bias, and a half a star for straw man argumentation. Let's start with the Good, then cover the Bad, and end with a Summary.
The Good
1. Engaging, Informative, and Overall, A Well Written Book
Kent Heckenlively, novelist, political enthusiast, and play write, is the architect to Plague.
The chapters are broken up so that the story of Dr. Mikovits' arrest and subsequent days in prison, break up the dense scientific chapters outlining the history of research into retroviruses, ME/CFS, and other illnesses such as Autism.
Heckenlively tells Dr. Mikovits story with such detail that a medical doctor will appreciate the thoroughness and yet in plain language that a novice like me can read and understand it.
So, what is the book all about? Essentially, it boils down to one scientists' idea that led to research grants, a study of over 300 patients, a published paper in Science, and ultimately her arrest and slandered reputation.
Here is the question that got the ball rolling:
"More broadly, Mikovits brought a once quiet, even esoteric conversation among molecular and evolutionary biologists out of the closet and into the mainstream: is it possible that one virus or a closely-related family of viruses might be causing the neurological diseases such as ME, autism, even possibly ALS and Parkinson's disease, as well as the epidemics of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and leukemia?"
She saw a connection to what was being discovered in HIV/AIDS and the research presented on ME/CFS. The question began to formalize and possess her entire focus.
"But what if it was another retrovirus, leading not to the predictable degeneration and death of untreated HIV/AIDS, but to a chronic, long-term disease, characterized by a loss of cellular energy and a lowering of the defenses of the body's immune system, as in the slower-moving retrovirus HTLV-1?"
Mikovits became convinced; "The resemblance of ME/CFS to AIDS was unmistakable: AIDS patients often had active coinfections in the herpes virus family, mycoplasma, candida—all found to be overrunning the body in ME/CFS by doctor-pioneers such as Dr. Martin Lerner, who biopsied heart tissue of ME/CFS patients and found opportunistic infections such as cytomegalovirus (CMV) and HHV-6, as well as Lyme and Babesia."
This nagging question motivated the research, personal events, and ultimate arrest and lawsuits against Dr. Mikovits. The story is riveted with billionaires, Nobel Prize awardees, FBI investigations, famous scientists, dark political involvement, and a common thread of injustice.
2. Promotes awareness of ME/CFS and other illnesses that need further Research
"If a retrovirus was at the heart of ME/CFS and autism, it seemed to lower immune functions of the patient enough to allow the proliferation of other pathogens, but not completely sabotage immunity to cause imminent death, dialing down functionality just enough so the pathogen could survive, but making the daily life of the host much more difficult."
The Science community has made sure to stress that this is a major "if". But the research conducted by Dr. Mikovits exposes areas previously uncharted, where there are possible connections to these diseases that might lead to a significant reduction of symptoms or even a future cure.
Dr. Mikovits specific research, surrounding a connection between xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) has been largely discredited due to perceived laboratory contamination. While Plague might argue a different cause, regardless, there is a critical and urgent need for both awareness and further research on all these illnesses, with particular regard to ME/CFS.
The Bad
1. Dr. Mikovits Can Do No Wrong
I am always wary of people who are either portrayed or never admit to having any faults. I am confident Dr. Mikovits would never make such a claim in person, however, in her co-authored book, you cannot find one. I want to believe her story in its entirety as I believe in her cause to help these hurting patients, but rarely is anyone truly faultless.
Plague is filled with emotionally charged section ending sentences like the following:
"But why would anybody not be interested in helping the millions of patients with ME/CFS and children with autism?"
This sort of passive-aggressive comment presumes that Dr. Mikovits and her allies are the only ones truly seeking to help people with these illnesses and not seeking fame and fortune.
Plague makes multiple references to the prejudice of women in science and makes Dr. Mikovits out to be a Joan of Arc in a sea of chauvinist men.
"In the Old Boys' network, Mikovits had to go by different rules: a woman could not be too fiery, and passion for patients was immediately viewed as overly soft (toward the "phobic, hysterical, maladaptive" patients in her case) and unscientific."
Again, I am not a scientist or doctor, I have never set foot in any setting remotely akin to that which Dr. Mikovits had to work daily. But to be compositely perfect in professional word and deed over seven years (the length of time the book focuses on recording) is quite a rarity.
Summary
Plague is an intriguing informative book that exposes the severity and curability of significant diseases while revealing that scientists, medical organizations, and charity institutions can fall into the trap of battling for power and political prestige.
This book seeks to represent the facts, however, there is a clear tone of biased toward the research and storyline that is projected by Dr. Mikovits. And yet, it is an excellent engaging resource for information regarding ME/CFS, XMRV, retroviruses, and Autism. For more information check out the book on Amazon.
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