Thread by Tapanui 'Flu on Twitter about Melvin Ramsay's views on the aetiology of the illness

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1272740501968449536.html

 

Thank you for sharing. A very useful clarification.

 

Ramsay seemed to actually have a view of ME that is very similar to the modern view. As infectious or gradual onset illness that could be triggered by a variety of viruses and may be more related to an immune problem.

 

More from Tapanui Flu on the subject
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1273267902196535296.html

 

Or maybe there is no cure because too many people, be they BPS or enterovirus enthusiasts, cling to incorrect pet theories.

The enterovirus ME enthusiasts also seem to have very little concern for anyone with similar health problems that just doesn't meet their narrow definition of true ME. There is the risk that if they ever gained enough political influence to shape research and healthcare, the changes they make would leave millions of patients in the same terrible situation as before over some minor difference. That is reason number two they're struggling to influence politics. Most researchers and physicians and politicians want to help many patients, not just a few.

 

The cause barely matters anyway at this stage. It's been clear for many years that there are multiple triggers, and there's little point in being obsessively protective of one or another of them. Even if a person becomes ill with ME soon after after a clearly-defined single event – be it EBV, a car accident, a stomach bug, pregnancy – they can't know that it, and it alone, was the cause. This is true of chronic illnesses that have been studied worldwide and had huge resources thrown at them half a century or more, let alone a severely underfunded one like ME.