Jonathan Edwards
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
I guess my concern is that the BPS stuff is obvious BS—whereas the BioBS stuff is shrouded with the air of respectability, as in this is “real science”, which in my opinion makes the BioBS stuff more pernicious.
It is something like that but I think you are right to point out the asymmetry.
Why should anyone bow to the authority of Akiko Iwasaki or David Putrino and not Simon Wessely or Michael Sharpe? Wessely and Sharpe are respected mainstream opinions in their field. The stuff about microclots and MCAS is seriously fringe stuff most haematologists and immunologists would regard as pseudoscience. It isn't respectable. I think people forget that his is all Xitter science, not mainstream opinion.
And is the BPS stuff so much more obviously wrong? The BPS people have a story that is at least superficially plausible at least to people who don't actually have ME/CFS. The micro-clot story is totally implausible because it claims a form of pathology - obstruction of small blood vessels - that we know for a fact isn't there. If it was people would have nasty purple spots on their legs.
The business about being recovered and still qualifying for entry is silly but it doesn't actually make any difference to the significance of the data as plotted out on graphs and it is technically feasible to have a situation like that and for it to be meaningful. Recovery is the wrong word but we don't treat people on the basis of what word is used, we look at the results. It doesn't matter much if you use hype words for real results. What matters is when the results weren't real in the first place.
I have no problem agreeing with David that the BPS influence has been the greatest harm. However, part of the justification for that approach was fed by an 'ME' story based on phoney neurology. That has now been put to bed but I worry that a new, equally pernicious story is being built around Long Covid, clots and mast cells that will keep psychiatrist entertained at dinners rolling their eyes and guffawing for a few more decades when it all becomes clear that it was eyewash.
David is doing a great job and we enjoy comparing notes - which includes differing on a few things. I do see this as desperately needing to be put on a level playing field.
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