Thanks for your support, please would you email your MP?

Dear all,

Thank you so much for your support. Please do continue to keep sharing the petition with your friends and family, and via your social media. Particular thanks to Amy from the Cambridgeshire Rural ME group who has coordinated much of the social media campaign.

If you or someone you know is struggling to access the vaccine and hasn’t already written to your/their GP, do try writing them a letter asking to be added to the list using one of these templates:

https://meassociation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ME-Association-Covid-Vaccine-Priority-Template-GP-Letter-V2-10.02.21.docx

https://www.actionforme.org.uk/uploads/pdfs/Action-for-ME-template-letter-priority-groups-10-Feb.docx

I know many of you have already tried this and not been successful, therefore it is so important we continue to push for change from the top.

Although it is the decision of the JCVI (who sit as an independent committee from the government) as to who is in which priority group, we would like to continue to raise this up the political agenda. If you are based in the UK, please consider writing to your MP asking them to support this campaign and to urgently raise the issue in parliament. There are instructions on how to do this below, and Mark from the Cambridge ME group has kindly created a template you can use.

Rest well and keep fighting!

Nic

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Check who your MP is and find their email address: https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP

Copy and paste the text below into an email to them, and add their name, your name and your full address (MPs can only represent their own constituents so they will need to check this before engaging with you), and add something in the subject line like “Covid19 vaccine for ME/CFS patients”.

Dear INSERT NAME,

As you know, people with a health condition putting them at risk should be included in priority group 6 for vaccinations. This includes those with a neurological condition. 

This means that people with ME/CFS should as of right be included in group 6: the condition is classified as neurological by the WHO and the Department of Health 'recognises CFS/ME as a neurological condition of unknown origin'.

New infections are a very common cause of relapse or exacerbation of ME/CFS. People who are already unable to work become totally housebound; those already housebound become bedbound. This is well recognised by doctors who are involved in managing people with ME/CFS. Chu et al (2019) carried out an epidemiological study into the outcome of ME/CFS and reported that infections are the commonest factor for having a deleterious impact on the course of ME/CFS:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6370741/

The fact that new infections can cause a significant exacerbation or relapse of ME/CFS is also referred to in both the CMO Working Group Report on ME/CFS and in section 1.6.4 of the new (draft) NICE clinical guideline on ME/CFS.

Despite this, many GPs are declining to include people with a diagnosis of ME/CFS in group 6.

On behalf of the hundreds of your constituents with ME/CFS, I ask you to:

1. Sign the petition to the JCVI here: https://www.change.org/p/jvci-specify-me-cfs-on-the-list-of-neurological-conditions-under-group-6-for-uk-covid19-vaccine

2. Share the petition online via Twitter and Facebook.

3. Write to the JCVI asking that they explicitly direct health professionals to treat ME/CFS sufferers within group 6.

4. Raise this issue in parliament as a matter of urgency.

Kind regards,

INSERT NAME

INSERT ADDRESS