MAGICAL MEDICINE: HOW TO MAKE AN ILLNESS ... - Invest in ME

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Pensions) and copied to the PACE team, which specifically mentions lobbying Members of Parliament
about the PACE Trial.
Rhiannon Powell’s letter also refers to the Government’s Pathways to Work programme; a “1200% increase
back to work” is mentioned in her letter (“one delegate was keen to know the number of people a 1200% increase back
to work equates to”). It is perhaps noteworthy that Sir Hugh Sykes (brother of Richard Sykes PhD whose work
on “Conceptual Issues in Somatoform and Similar Disorders” is referred to in Section 1 above) is a non‐
executive Director of A4e (Action for Employment), the largest European provider of Welfare to Work
programmes and author of “Welfare to Work – The New Deal: Maximising the Benefits” (with grateful
acknowledgement to http://meagenda.wordpress.com ).
Rhiannon Powell’s letter goes on to say that among Chandler Chicco’s forthcoming actions was “the
possibility of us contacting someone involved in raising awareness for the issue for people with chronic
fatigue (sic)”.
Professor Aylward’s annotated reply suggests that she should contact Chris Clark of “Action for CFS/ME”.
Action for ME, of course, is a Government‐funded charity, which seems to demonstrate the impregnable
circularity of the Wessely School’s modus operandi.
Minutes of the Joint Trial Steering Committee and Data Monitoring and Ethics Committee meeting held on
27 th September 2004 record that Professor Dieppe (Chair of the Data Monitoring and Ethics Committee):
“expressed anxiety that recruitment might be impeded by the anti‐PACE/FINE lobbyists. Professor Sharpe
and Professor White stated that lobby groups had not previously affected recruitment in trials of GET,
which is the most controversial of the therapies to be tested”.
The same Minutes record:
“The question was asked as to how to deal with any emails or hateful correspondence received. It was agreed that these
should not be directly responded to, but should be retained as evidence for the future should it be needed. ACTION 45:
Any lobbyist mail to be forwarded to Julia DeCesare for storage”.
The retaining as “evidence”of any “lobbyist mail” as “evidence for the future” seems sinister, especially
when such “lobbyist” mail may be the desperate pleadings of sick people seeking appropriate
investigations and care.
These Minutes once again seem to show that both Professors Sharpe and White were fully aware of the
controversial nature of the MRC PACE Trial, particularly of the GET arm of the Trial.
By their specifically acknowledging that the GET arm is “particularly” controversial, they indicated that
they accept that the CBT arm of the Trial is also controversial, so their attempts in the media to allay public
concern by asserting that media reports about the PACE Trial are “inaccurate” may seem duplicitous.
The Wessely School seem to lose no opportunity to invoke the concept of “controversy” when discussing
ME/CFS.
They seem to use this as a tactic of disparagement – they imply that doctors know that ME/CFS (or
“CFS/ME”) is a somatoform disorder, but patients cause “controversy” because they will not accept that
“doctor knows best”.