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

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Many people believe that there is the same press<strong>in</strong>g need for the removal of those currently <strong>in</strong> charge of<br />

the <strong>ME</strong>/CFS programme <strong>in</strong> the UK because, as Professor Holgate affirmed, it is time to get away from old<br />

models and to use proper science.<br />

This need is supported by patients who posted messages on the <strong>ME</strong> Association’s Facebook site (spell<strong>in</strong>g<br />

and syntax adjusted for clarity):<br />

Post # 1, 30 th January 2010: “The MRC are supposedly try<strong>in</strong>g to help sufferers of CFS/<strong>ME</strong> so why is Prof White on<br />

this panel; he is a very bad seed. I have never met a s<strong>in</strong>gle patient who has a good word to say about him and never met<br />

anyone who has been cured by his ‘treatment’. He just doesn’t deserve to be there…he also helped set up the Frenchay<br />

CFS/<strong>ME</strong> service <strong>in</strong> Bristol which is the most awful place I have ever had the misfortune to end up <strong>in</strong>; not only did they<br />

not help, they made my health situation a lot worse”.<br />

Post # 2, 30 th January 2010: “I had the misfortune of attend<strong>in</strong>g Bart’s CFS Cl<strong>in</strong>ic headed by Prof White and I never<br />

returned after the first visit. They tried very forcefully to get me to try GET even after expla<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g how severely affected<br />

I am and how hard it was for me to attend Bart’s…How Prof White can advise the DWP while he works for a medical<br />

<strong>in</strong>surance company is beyond comprehension. If that is not a conflict of <strong>in</strong>terest, then what is?”.<br />

Post # 4, 30 th January 2010: “Prof White is, I’m sure, very happy with the way the MRC is fund<strong>in</strong>g research: as well<br />

as giv<strong>in</strong>g millions to fund the PACE Trial, they have also funded other projects headed by Charlotte Clark and Kam<br />

Bhui <strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong>stitute he (PDW) is <strong>in</strong>volved with, while the MRC has not been fund<strong>in</strong>g research projects which might<br />

challenge his views. So he will be happy with the status quo while most people <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g Prof Holgate th<strong>in</strong>k the MRC<br />

needs to change with regard to <strong>ME</strong> and CFS and the grants they are fund<strong>in</strong>g. I th<strong>in</strong>k it would be good if all the<br />

people on any committee knew where Peter White was com<strong>in</strong>g from”<br />

(http://www.facebook.com//group.php?v=feed&story_fbid=226500923256&gid=68630803256#/topic.php?uid<br />

=68630803256&topic=12993 ).<br />

Indeed so.<br />

As Nobel laureate Professor Richard Feynman famously said about the nature of the scientific process: “First<br />

you guess…Then you compute the consequences. Compare the consequences to the experience. If it disagrees with<br />

the experience, then the guess is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn’t matter how<br />

beautiful your guess is…If it disagrees with experience, it’s wrong. That’s all there is to it”<br />

(http://www.staticearth.net/copern.htm ).<br />

As demonstrated, the Wessely School not only ignore the biomedical evidence that <strong>ME</strong>/CFS is not a<br />

behavioural disorder, they also ignore their own evidence that their preferred <strong>in</strong>terventions are not<br />

successful; can they therefore be said to be practis<strong>in</strong>g science or bl<strong>in</strong>dly follow<strong>in</strong>g an ideology?

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