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No, I think your analysis is right. A non-vaccinated person must be a better variant factory than the same person vaccinated. The idea of 'evolutionary pressure' is bogus. Mutation is inherent to the DNA and the host cell replication machinery. Pressure does not increase it. If there is...

I don't know why it should though.

Two opinions. Neither is an immunologist and this is immunology. I don't think we have reason to think autoantibodies are of any importance in ME, whether primary or secondary whatever that might mean.

If there is something specific to say or to establish that has not already been said or established I can see PR being useful. The problem for me comes with the introduction of 'ME, the complex, multi systemic neuroimmune disease'. To change the narrative usefully it needs to change from that...

I fail to understand how this is a paper. they looked at two treatments and noted they were a bit different - that seems to be all it says. Surely the fact that two treatments are a bit different is there for anyone to note? And where did CBT-F come from?

That does not quite fit with the way things are presented in the video.

Something I had wondered about but not investigated is whether or not the mouse studies were done in a blinded and systematic way, which would be essential for a reliable result. Listening to the video by David Anderson it seems not. They tested one patient and one control, I suspect knowing...

I am not sure I know what that would mean. I suspect the people diagnosing it might say yes but I couldn't be sure. presumably it would imply a uniform mechanism that is not present otherwise. I find it hard to see that as likely since physicians cannot agree how many people to include.

So what is 'characteristic of fibromyalgia'? It all seems pretty vague to me. If it really was characteristic and easy to discriminate then why do physicians find it so hard to agree on who has it? I have looked after people with painful peripheral neuropathy and it is immediately obvious...

Rather than playing with mice I would concentrate on establishing the validity of the claim to autoantibodies being present. I would ask Angela Vincent to get her colleagues to repeat the immunochemical/cytological studies and see if they hold up. I have not had time to look at the paper in...

I understand your problem @Trish . I am not dismissing the research but expressing my opinion that it is very unlikely to hold up. It is difficult to give precise reasons but there are at least half a dozen things in this study that tome indicate that the authors do not really grasp the...

We are at cross-purpose. My point about the implausibility of 8 all showing the same effects (on mice) being attributed to autoantibodies is independent of any actual measuring of autoantibody activity in pooled sera. The pooling of sera is another thing that a competent immunologist just would...

Yes I realise these points but that is not really what bothered me. Peptide arrays are a bad way to look anyway so that is another minus Brownie point. Don't even bother. They are trying to persuade us that all8 people had autoantibodies that had the same sort of effect on nerves - hence all...

I don't think this will prove reproducible. There are a whole lot of things in the man script that make me sceptical I am afraid. The key problems that it is vanishingly unlikely that all 8 of a sample of 'fibromyalgia' patients would have autoantibodies that do the same thing. The diagnostic...

Yes, you can use GRADE to shift your decision in whatever direction you like- which is why it is so ridiculous. NICE decided to downgrade on the basis of selection criteria I think. You could think up a reason under almost any of the categories. But that needs people who want to do that. If...

Sorry, I had not read all the comments before responding initially.i agree with Hutan. Systematic reviews are supposed to have rules that make them comprehensive and consistent. That makes sense to everyone. But unfortunately the grADE system used since around 2010 also has rules about how you...

The problems that Cochrane is locked in to the GRADE system which has a set of rules that do not reflect the facts about reliability so is bogus. Not sure what point you are wanting to discuss if not this?

There is nothing the least bit 'radical' about this. it is a matter of known fact that such trials are unreliable so there inso problem discounting them. Every medical student is taught this. such trials are routinely discounted for drug treatments so why not for non-drug treatments?

drivel-o-babble again since when did psychosocial intervention reduce inflammation?

It all depends on what you are actually wanting to mean by the word. It is alto easy house words like inflammation or immunological without actually having any specific concept in your head! Just as people talk of economic growth without necessarily having a clear idea what the term means.