It just shows that the "controversy" is entirely over politics and ideology, not science.
The most obvious thing about this article is the complete lack of any mention of, let alone serious discussion about, the actual scientific and ethical issues driving this debate.
Eight years after [Sharpe & colleagues] published results of a clinical trial that found some patients with chronic fatigue syndrome can get a little better with the right talking and exercise therapies
A little better?
That wasn't their claim in the
PACE 'recovery' paper. They said 22% in both the CBT and GET arms met their definition of 'recovery' – their word, not mine.
So are they now acknowledging that
this re-analysis of that paper showed the claim to be incorrect, and there are in fact no recoveries?
Not to mention that a treatment that makes me feel "a little better" than complete shit is of little use to me at all. I'd prefer you spent the money on real research, if you don't mind.
Sharpe no longer conducts research into CFS/ME treatments, focusing instead on helping severely ill cancer patients. “It’s just too toxic,” he explained. Of more than 20 leading research groups who were publishing treatment studies in high-quality journals 10 years ago, Sharpe said, only one or two continue to do so.
Nah, mate. You moved on because your shitty science and ethics were being legitimately and increasingly effectively exposed, and you couldn't take the heat.
Let's see what names come up in support of Sharpe:
Per Fink, Simon Wessely, Richard Horton, Lillebeth Larun.
Well, knock me over with a feather.
Wessely’s employers at King’s College London have taken advice on the potential risk and have instituted X-ray scans of his mail, he says. “Everything I say and do in public, and sometimes even in private, is pored over and scrutinized,” he said.
Yet you remain a very active, outspoken, powerful, feted, and public figure.
You were so concerned about specific death threats over a lecture event that you took your young teenage son along to it and let him talk to the quiet peaceful protesters unsupervised.
Doesn't sound to me like the actions of a man genuinely concerned for his and his family's safety.
Sounds like a man in love with the sound of his own voice and full of self-importance.
I note the qualifier 'potential' in that quote. Interesting.
The campaign to have evidence-backed treatments discredited...
Oh puhleese. That wouldn't pass Sophistry 101.
In April last year, Tuller secured $87,500 in online crowdfunding to “debunk” the PACE trial findings.
No, his task is to
report to the wider world the debunkings done by others, in particular by patients via formal processes, including peer-review journals.
And he is doing a very good job of it. Worth every penny.
In the decade or so that [Lillebeth Larun has] been conducting research in this area, she told Reuters, she’s endured online attacks and abusive emails, and at various points had to take a break from working due to the pressure. Returning to a CFS/ME project would make her feel physically sick with anxiety.
At least you have a choice to walk away, Ms Larun. We patients don't have that luxury.
And the less said about Colin Barton the better.