Some commenters on the Boston.com article were critiquing the methodology used, but according to a footnote on the CDC page, it sounds like this was compiled from a survey question explicitly asking if the person taking the survey was diagnosed by a medical professional.
NOTES: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome was based on a yes response to the following two survey questions, “Have you ever been told by a doctor or other health professional that you had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)?” and “Do you still have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) or ME?” Confidence intervals were calculated using the Korn–Graubard method for complex surveys. Estimates are based on household interviews of a sample of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population
Looking at the CDC data page about this is interesting. The less urbanized your area was associated with a greater occurrence of having it: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db488.htm#fig5 (among a number of factors). My first question is if this might relate to vaccination rates, but I didn’t see anything mentioning vaccination rates.
Some commenters on the Boston.com article were critiquing the methodology used, but according to a footnote on the CDC page, it sounds like this was compiled from a survey question explicitly asking if the person taking the survey was diagnosed by a medical professional.
Looking at the CDC data page about this is interesting. The less urbanized your area was associated with a greater occurrence of having it: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db488.htm#fig5 (among a number of factors). My first question is if this might relate to vaccination rates, but I didn’t see anything mentioning vaccination rates.
Haven’t read the paper yet, but my first thought was that it could be either tick-borne, or stem from a tick-borne illness.