Trial By Error: BMJ Amends Last Week’s PACE Article

Eagles

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
http://www.virology.ws/2019/02/12/trial-by-error-bmj-amends-last-weeks-pace-article/

Trial By Error: BMJ Amends Last Week’s PACE Article

12 February 2019

By David Tuller, DrPH

Last Wednesday, the UK Health Research Authority released a letter reviewing its analysis of the PACE trial. Members and supporters of the GET/CBT ideological brigades have misrepresented the HRA letter as a vindication of the study. On Thursday, BMJ posted an article about the HRA letter by science journalist Nigel Hawkes.

The BMJ article quoted from a Virology Blog post. After my byline on that post, I had included as always the initials for my public health doctoral degree–DrPH. Yet BMJ identified me as “a US activist” without mentioning my academic credentials and my position at one of the world’s leading research universities...
 
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The esteemed professors applauding the HRA letter in the BMJ article are also advocating for what they presumably perceive to be in the best interests of patients. They are no less “activists” on behalf of their perspectives than I am on behalf of mine.
The thought that we should start referring to them as 'establishment activists' had occurred to me recently.
 
Even with the 'US activist' still there - didn't the addition of Tullers credentials change the meaning/impact of the ending a bit?

It was ment to read (I guess) as 'look what this activist fool still goes on about'. But now it's more like 'the US academic got the last word and corrects the UK bunch that didn't read the finer details.....?

But then, I'm biased :p
 
More 'US Activists' ?

Dharam V. Ablashi, DVM, MS, Dip Bact,
Scientific Director

Michael Allen, PhD,
Clinical Psychologist (retired)

James N. Baraniuk, MD,
Professor of Medicine

Lisa F. Barcellos, PhD
Professor of Epidemiology

Lucinda Bateman, MD
Medical Director

Charlotte Blease, PhD
Fulbright and Marie Curie Research Fellow

Molly Brown, PhD
Assistant Professor

John Chia, MD
Physician and Researcher

Lily Chu, MD, MSHS
Independent Researcher

Janet L Dafoe, PhD
Child Psychologist in Private Practice

Todd E. Davenport, PT, DPT, MPH, OCS
Professor and Program Director

Ronald W. Davis, PhD
Professor of Biochemistry and Genetics

Lucy Dechene, PhD
Professor of Mathematics (retired)

Derek Enlander, MD
Clinician in private practice

Meredyth Evans, PhD
Clinical Psychologist and Researcher

Margaret C. Fernald, PhD
Clinical Associate

Mary Ann Fletcher, PhD
Schemel Professor of NeuroImmune Medicine

Kenneth J. Friedman, PhD
Associate Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology (retired)

Robert F. Garry, PhD
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology

Mike Godwin, JD
Attorney and Author

Rebecca Goldin, PhD
Professor of Mathematics

Alan Gurwitt, MD
Clinician in Private Practice (retired)

Maureen Hanson, PhD
Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor

Leonard A. Jason, PhD
Professor of Psychology

Daniel Kahn, MD
Professor of Radiology

Michael W. Kahn, MD
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Jon D. Kaiser, MD
Clinical Faculty

David L. Kaufman, MD
Center for Complex Diseases

Betsy Keller, PhD, FACSM
Professor of Exercise & Sport Sciences

Nancy Klimas MD
Director, Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine

Andreas M. Kogelnik, MD, PhD
Director Open Medicine Institute

Anthony L. Komaroff, MD
Simcox-Clifford-Higby Distinguished Professor of Medicine

Charles W. Lapp, MD
Medical Director

Bruce Levin, PhD
Professor of Biostatistics

Alan R. Light, PhD
Professor of Anesthesiology
Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy

Vincent C. Lombardi, PhD
Director of Research

Alex Lubet, PhD
Professor of Music
Head, Interdisciplinary Graduate Group in Disability Studies

Steven Lubet, JD
Williams Memorial Professor of Law

Kristin Luker, PhD
Professor of Sociology Emerita
Professor of Law Emerita

Darren Lynch, MD

Marlon Maus, MD, DrPH, FACS
DrPH Program Director

Patrick E. McKnight, PhD
Professor of Psychology

Marvin S. Medow, PhD
Professor of Pediatrics and Physiology

Peter G. Medveczky, MD
Professor of Molecular Medicine

Jose G. Montoya, MD, FACP, FIDSA
Professor of Medicine

Zaher Nahle, PhD, MPA

James M. Oleske, MD, MPH
François-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Pediatrics

Nigel Paneth, MD, MPH
University Distinguished Professor

Richard Podell, MD, MPH
Clinical Professor, Department of Family Medicine

Nicole Porter, PhD
Psychologist in Private Practice

Vincent R. Racaniello, PhD
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology

Arthur L. Reingold, MD
Professor of Epidemiology

Peter C. Rowe, MD
Professor of Pediatrics

Christopher R. Snell, PhD
Scientific Director

Maryann Spurgin, PhD
Philosophy and Classics (retired)

Philip B. Stark, PhD
Professor of Statistics

Staci Stevens, MA
Exercise Physiologist

Julian Stewart, MD, PhD
Professor of Pediatrics, Physiology and Medicine

John Swartzberg, MD
Clinical Professor Emeritus

Ronald G. Tompkins, MD, ScD
Summer M Redstone Professor of Surgery

Samuel Tucker, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry (retired)

Rosemary A. Underhill, MBBS, MRCOG, FRCSE
Physician, Independent Researcher

Derya Unutmaz, MD
Professor

Mark VanNess, PhD
Professor of Health, Exercise & Sports Sciences

Sadie Whittaker, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer

Marcie Zinn, PhD
Cognitive Neuroscience and Data Science
 
OK. Here are quotes from the original of all the bits that refer to "activists" etc. Does anyone have access to the updated version to see what's been changed and what's not?

(para 3) "Although the HRA’s intervention will come as a comfort to the team that led the trial and to the Medical Research Council, which funded it, it is unlikely to put to bed a longstanding campaign by activists to discredit it."

(para 5) "Activists with strong views about the nature of their disease and what does or does not work in treating it have never accepted the result and have attempted to discredit the conduct of the trial and those who led it.[3]"

(para 6) "In recent years US activists have discovered PACE and have repeated all the same arguments originally put in the UK, while ignoring or discounting the answers provided."

(para 10) "Nor, as critics have claimed, did Queen Mary University of London routinely deny access to data."

(para 11) "Finally, Montgomery looks at changes made to eligibility criteria and to outcome measures, which the opponents of PACE have claimed were manipulated to get the result that emerged."

(para 14) "But David Tuller, a US activist, responded in a blog by saying, “Any claim that the HRA has given PACE a blanket clean bill of health is going way beyond what the report itself states.""
 
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I feel that this article should be open access anyway. BMJ journalist attacks "activists" but we can't see it as patients (activists or not) because we can't afford £23 for one day's access. Does anyone know if there's a Sci-hub link? I don't know how to search for one.

I'm getting ANGRY! And I suspect @Daysailer might say that when I get angry I won't back down.

 
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