I've emailed the NICE committee as follows:

Dear committee members,

The petition from our local Cambridge group now has over 6,000 signatures. This petition, urging you not to be deflected from publishing, will I hope give you a sense of the strength of feeling among sufferers from ME/CFS.

For decades we have been maltreated and traduced. We have been looking forward to the new guidelines as a huge step towards being taken seriously by the health profession and obtaining decent, evidence-based treatment. It is heart-breaking to have this lifeline snatched away from us at the very last minute.

Please do not allow yourselves to be bullied into submission by vested interests in the medical establishment! These people are careless of the evidence and, it seems, of the health and well-being of patients.

Publish!