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I find this strangely arm's-length sentence intriguing: This was a classic demonstration of the importance of transparency: critics of the study (of whom there are many) had to make a Freedom of Information request and wait years to see the data — at which point they argued that their...

There is never any room for 'benefit of the doubt' in science. So much work in science is flawed by poor methodology and over enthusiasm. Unless you assume that work may be hyped before you read you will find yourself taken in by all sorts of empty stuff. But generally it is not too difficult...

So where are the data please, mate? I think you have to be a bit thick to write that sentence.

It will only ramp up if people give it attention - so why give it exposure?

The Benedetti article is interesting in that it is clear that Benedetti himself would like to make use of placebos. One might say that he can hardly complain if the quacks want to as well! I think the parallel with the BPS people, who also feel that it is OK for them to make use of the placebo...

I cannot see any point in following empty marketing like this. When there is some science I will take a look.

@Hutan, It would take a few thousand words to fully explain the problem here. But in simple terms human tissues are solids. Hydrostatic pressures are properties of liquids. If you try to ascribe hydrostatic pressures to solids you have to be very very careful and know exactly what you are doing...

The quoted abstract illustrates well how poorly immunologists understand their own terminology (and also the pathology of synovium, which at one time was my special expertise). A dysregulated inflammatory response is not' autoimmune' unless there is actual immune reactivity to self, as there is...

Read my paper with Jo Cambridge in Immunology 1999! B cells operate on a basis of random generation of antibody types with a chain reaction positive feedback loop for mass production when needed. To explain autoimmunity you need to find a way to trick the chain reaction into activating for self...

I had not actually read the article but it is the tired old old story I was familiar with from my student days which my 1999 article in Immunology with Jo Cambridge should have finally put to bed. There is not a scrap of evidence for it. Rather than being at the cutting edge of immunology people...

Let me try a slightly different abstract. Introduction: Viruses might be linked to autoimmunity. Methods: So we allowed at least 193,668,196 people (so far) to get infected with a virus and waited to see if there was a flush of autoimmune disease. Results: none seemed to turn up. Conclusion...

The UK Biobank seems to be a useful resource as far as I can see. However, any data gathering project based self-registration through the net has major disadvantages in comparison to traditional population based epidemiological studies. I continue to have significant concerns about cohort bias...

The comment re Lyme was from an ME association and I have no view on that. The political aspects for me are more general.

Absolutely agree, but NICE has come close to changing things by debarring the 'international experts' from contributing and making use of the common sense of citizen scientists. The key point is that science does not come from those who share a received wisdom, but from those who are one step...

Yes but you cannot convince stupid people of what makes sense. They don't follow. And they are in the majority. I was there for thirty years! You don;'t do things this way. As the saying goes if you want something done best do it yourself. NIHR was specifically set up to lower the standards...

I give up really. Everything is drivel now. Stakeholder is a completely inappropriate term in this context. There are people who need help and people who might be able to help given the opportunity and a whole load of people with vested interests getting in the way. There is no commonality...

I am afraid, @Hutan, that this: “We have brought together experts from across the UK to work with international colleagues from the World Health Organisation and large international COVID studies, such as the ISARIC consortium, to achieve consensus on the design of research studies addressing...

For once I agree with @duncan. The allofus.nih.gov webpage looks like pure politics to me. I cannot see any point in PWME contributing to a project that is not properly epidemiologically structured. This looks like simple window dressing driven by some people building empires in 'precision...

There is a medical sense of that sort - as in so-called fatigue-fracture when the shin bone cracks after repeated use. But I think that just illustrates how many different usages there are. There may be a lot of confusion over ME symptoms but for both patients and doctors fatigue is a symptom...

You seem to be missing the point @Snow Leopard that language is messy and complicated. In science terms of have multiple meanings in different language structure contexts. Yes, of course the root fatigue- is used for the sorts of phenomena you describe and as a compound noun like peripheral...