The Guardian's Science Weekly podcast - 2 November 2018 - What role should the public play in science?

large donner said:
Of course these notions can't be beyond the understanding of the average psychiatrist. They are just inconvenient when you are trying to promote a soundbite using implication to reach an uncritical audience via an uncritical journalist.

If Michael is so convinced of his arguments lets just put our best person forward to have a recorded debate with him to be put on YouTube.

Let's see him be challenged using sources and data, even his own data, and lets have an instant come back opportunity for every statement he claims to make is fact.

Lets put up his duplicitous statements (over numerous years and how he changes them depending on his audience) on a large screen in a debate hall. Let him defend the PACE trial, the recovery definition, the change of protocol issue etc etc. Surely then he will be able to set the "activists" straight once and for all?
Click to expand...
I think it would be a very bad idea to do this live (either actually live, or pre-recorded). It is too easy for dishonest people to mislead in real time, and too hard for honest people to rebut.

Better to do it as an exchange of written responses (plus graphics) over 2-3 months. That advice applies to both patients and non-patients.

Whatever tactics you use against these guys must allow for the fact that they know how to thoroughly muddy the waters, and have no hesitation or remorse about doing so.
 
From his opening sentence you could tell that Ian Sample was going to present a selective view.

"In May activists rallied in New York"

So no mention that this was ME awareness day, that similar protests were taking place in 100 cities across the world, that thousands of pairs of shoes were lined up, representing all the other 'activists' who were too ill to attend.

"MS: the term ME stands for myalgic encephalomyelitis. This term was coined in the 1950’s to describe an epidemic of symptoms in the staff of the Royal Free Hospital which occurred during a polio epidemic"

So no mention of "The name chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) was coined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) following an outbreak of a flu-like illness at Incline Village, at Lake Tahoe, in the 1980s."

Michael Sharpe has almost word for word used the line about 'the term ME' from the journalists primer on ME-pedia:
https://me-pedia.org/wiki/Primer_for_journalists

I suggest people tweet/send this link to Ian Sample and any other journalists who might be considering doing a 'piece' on ME/CFS.......they might learn something.
 
Seems The Guardian is not one big happy family.

The Guardian in the US is committed to covering this important civil rights fight [trans-gender rights], but when the time came for us to report on Trump’s attacks, we encountered problems. Some trans people wouldn’t talk to us.

That’s because, days earlier, the Guardian published an editorial that we believe promoted transphobic viewpoints, including some of the same assertions about gender that US politicians are citing in their push to eliminate trans rights. Guardian journalists in the US had no input in the editorial, which we felt was misplaced and misguided, and nearly all reporters and editors from our New York, Washington DC and California offices wrote to UK editors with our concerns.

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...dian-editorial-response-transgender-rights-uk
Click to expand...
Anybody here have any contacts on The Guardian's US staff?

:whistle:
 
Russell Fleming said:
I have listened to some of the podcast, and wondered if anyone could possibly tell me why Sharpe mentions that people who had depression in the past are likely to develop ME/CFS and that another cause might be 'genetic load' (I think he said).
Click to expand...

Sharpe just says stuff he thinks suits the message he wants to provide, regardless of the facts. He's been caught out making misleading/wrong statements to the media before too.

Both the depression and genetics stuff are equivocal, there is some familial association but that could be due to environmental exposures as much as any other factor (infections perhaps?).

chrisb said:
I see that Ian Sample has a PhD in biomedical materials from Queen Mary's London. I'm trying to remember why the name of that institution rings a bell.
Click to expand...

Hmm... I got it, no wait, hmm, it's a headscratcher alright! ;)
 
Last edited:
chrisb said:
I see that Ian Sample has a PhD in biomedical materials from Queen Mary's London. I'm trying to remember why the name of that institution rings a bell.
Click to expand...

omg! It's a conspiracy! Seriously though - please don't do this. Just because QMUL hold the data and employed one of the researchers, doesn't mean that everyone who ever worked or studied there is somehow culpable in this. (I know it was probably said in jest - but just saying)
 
I can’t listen t this being presented as fact. If the BPS lot would engage in debate rather than manipulate chances to present their story unchallenged I would have some more respect. Simple test really - will you debate your side with the other or with scientists who disageee with you, no , why.
 
Having just listened after all to this gross distortion, two things I noted. Didn’t sharpe claim the royal free outbreak was polio ? And I note he was quoting researchers in Denmark getting harassed, people like per fink no doubt I wonder why, for lucking up young women , but said to a lesser extent USA. Isn’t it obvious it is to a lesser extent USA because there are less powerful BPS people dominating the field there and the USA aren’t endorsing the Michael sharpe approach. He also seemed very keen to keep ME and CFS as possibly distinct. I’d like to ask if it turns out they are, certainly ME complex severe distinct from Oxford fatigue, what has the UK done for ME patients since his involvement in the 90s. I’d also ask if he’d had a bedridden daughter since the 90s , does he think she has been well served by his BPS CFS narrative and it’s dominance in terms of nhs approach in the uk.
The woman wasn’t knowledgeable enough to understand why CBT get was the only treatment with any evidence.
 
Last edited:
IS: Were you attacked personally?

MS: Any of your listeners wants to go on Google or Twitter and have a look, they will see some not very pleasant comments to me.
Click to expand...

Just remember that MS has blocked anyone who has made reasonable arguments to him. These won't show up to anyone viewing his feed.

Now see this:
msharpe_3nov2018_1.png

I'm sorry, but incandescent does not adequately describe how I feel right now... :emoji_fire:
 
Lucibee said:
omg! It's a conspiracy! Seriously though - please don't do this. Just because QMUL hold the data and employed one of the researchers, doesn't mean that everyone who ever worked or studied there is somehow culpable in this. (I know it was probably said in jest - but just saying)
Click to expand...

LOL certainly hope not as I am an alumna of QMUL - wrote and told the principal or vice - forget which - how I was now ashamed to admit it.
 
Does Michael Sharpe really not know that the person whose complaint sparked this episode was so ill that he is no longer with us? Or that the successful FoI request that has shed some light on things came from someone who has since been too ill to communicate with others?

I have made a decision at present not to get involved in this sort of stuff but for a psychiatrist to behave like this is simply pathological. Psychiatrists are supposed to have respect and sympathy for people in distress.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom