Buffoons

[Barbarian]

What cretins!

Geez, talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Some people... <img src="images/smilies/shakehead.gif" border="0" alt="shake head" />

<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14326514" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14326514</a>

[Graham]

Actually I think what people are objecting to are Simon Wessely and his crackpot crew who continue to insist that CFS is a psychiatric condition long after that view has been discredited!

[Barbarian]

But he's not <i>insisting </i>it's psychiatric - he's doing research into the <i>possibility </i>that it may be psychiatric and that it may respond to psychiatric treatment. Just as other groups are doing research into the <i>possibility </i>that it's bio-medical. You have to put forward hypotheses if you're to progress but that doesn't mean that it's set in concrete and you're unwilling to accept new evidence (well, at least that's what I was taught as good scientific practice!). It's lunacy to want to cut off research into one branch whilst we still really have no idea of the etiology of the illness - why reduce the number of chances of hitting the jackpot?

And like Wessely says, there's nothing wrong even if it <i>did </i>turn out to be psychiatric! Schizophrenia is labelled as psychiatric and is one of the most disabling illnesses I can think of!

I'm sure that if a biomedical cause was discovered then Wessely would be intelligent/professional enough to accept this. The real culprits in my opinion are Judy Mikovits and her team who are refusing to co-operate with a whole host of internationally renowned research teams / Science magazine and are not willing to accept constructive criticism about XMRV!

Like the article says it's not just Wessely that's being targeted - it's putting off good scientists from turning their attention to the illness, e.g. virologist Myra McClure. Which should be the last thing we want!

B.
<em>edited by Barbarian on 7/29/2011</em>

[Graham]

Well that's one side of the story. But if you want to know why Wessely is rather unpopular to say the least among ME activists you should try reading these articles:

<a href="http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/What_Is_ME_What_Is_CFS.htm" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/What_Is_ME_What_Is_CFS.htm</a>
<a href="http://www.cfscentral.com/2010/06/hard-cell.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.cfscentral.com/2010/06/hard-cell.html</a>

EDIT: Here is a response to that article from a doctor <a href="http://www.publicservice.co.uk/blog_story.asp?id=308" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.publicservice.co.uk/blog_story.asp?id=308</a>
<em>edited by Graham on 7/29/2011</em>

[Barbarian]

Well those are good articles and very interesting.

It just saddens me to see headlines like this - it really is counter-productive.

Scientists have a hard enough time just trying to justify their research to their peers. See Dr Kenneth Friedman's eyeopening testimony here:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KhB-701-BMU"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KhB-701-BMU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

let alone having to ward off the vigilante public!

I just hope it hasn't put off some potential research groups - after all the Medical Research Council had only recently added CFS/ME as a specific Research Initiative to get the ball rolling (which in itself is unusual as they do not often target specific illnesses).

B.
<em>edited by Barbarian on 7/29/2011</em>

[Graham]

Wow. I'm not usually a beiliever in conspiricy theories, but it makes you wonder what is really known. And why the powers that be are so eager to pretend that it is a psychiatric illness!

But really Barbarian, Simon Wessely deserves little sympathy, he's not a genuine ME researcher, he is in hoc with insurance companies and the government to cover up any possible biological cause of ME/CFS and publish loads of dubious "research" about how it is really a psychiatric condition against mountains of evidence. That is why he is so unpopular.

There's loads about it here: <a href="http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/</a>

[Barbarian]

Thanks Graham.

The more I've been reading into it the less faith I have in Wessely.

I just hope science wins out in the end!

It usually does <img src="images/smilies/wink.gif" border=0 />