Chronic fatigue syndrome is not rare, a new CDC survey finds

 Health officials have released the first nationally representative estimate of how many U.S. adults have chronic fatigue syndrome: 3.3 million. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s number is larger than previous studies have suggested and is likely boosted by some of the patients with long COVID. MORE

The findings contradicted long-held perceptions about who suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome. There was less of a gap between women and men than some previous studies suggested, and there was hardly any difference between white and Black people. The study also found that a higher percentage of poor people said they had it than affluent people. The condition clearly “is not a rare illness,” said the CDC’s Dr. Elizabeth Unger, one of the report’s co-authors.