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

72
Medical scientists and most clinicians know that symptoms are a signal that something in the body is
wrong, and that symptoms are not merely “bothersome bodily or mental sensations” as claimed by Waddell and
Aylward and as described in the Green Paper that preceded the Pathways to Work reforms.
The Wessely School social reformists have re‐
defined terminology to mean what they want it to mean. They seem intent on dis‐
empowering general practitioners, and the MRC PACE Trial seems to be part of
this constructed “evidence”.
Dr Suzanne Vernon, former ME/
CFS researcher at the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) but since 2007 Scientific Director of the
CFIDS Association of America, stated on 5 th December 2008 that there are now more than 5,000 peer‐
reviewed articles in the biomedical literature that tell us a lot about the disrupted biology of ME/
CFS, about what happens to the immune and endocrine systems and to the autonomic and
central nervous systems.
When asked why this information had not been harnessed, her reply was that there is no good reason why it
has not been translated to the medical community, saying: “no‐one is filling that gap between the bench research
and the bedside”.
This is an important point: it is not that accurate information and knowledge are unavailable; it is that
the information and knowledge are being systematically blocked by the extremely efficient and effective
networking of the Wessely School who ensure that the gap between bench and bed is filled with their
own views about “CFS/ME”.
That networking also includes Wikipedia, which is one of the first ports of call for computer‐
literate people
seeking information on the internet. Despite the seemingly false premise upon which the Wessely School
model of “CFS/ME” is founded, it is their view which currently dominates; indeed, as noted by Alex Young
(Co‐Cure ACT: 7 th September 2009), the Wikipedia entry now has a strong biopsychosocial bias, focusing on
illness behaviour and mood disorders and on the alleged efficacy of CBT/GET. (A more accurate source of
information about ME/CFS than Wikipedia is to be found on Disapedia:
http://www.disapedia.com/index.php?title=Myalgic_Encephalomyelitis_(ME)).
Not only do the Wessely School flood the UK medical journals with their own beliefs about the nature of
“CFS/ME”, to the extent that it would take a brave editor to publish a contrary view (editors frequently
publish highly uncritical assessments of CBT which focus on the few studies that support its use, whilst
ignoring those controlled trials which did not find CBT to be effective and which warned about the dangers
of exercising beyond physiological exhaustion), but the Wessely School also seem to have open access to
major Australian and US journals and thus to an international audience. They also frequently publish in the
medical trade journals which have wide circulation, and they seem to control to a large extent what is
published about “CFS/ME” in the UK media seemingly through Wessely’s involvement with the Science
Media Centre (SMC), where he is on the Scientific Advisory Panel.
The SMC was set up in 1999 under New Labour to operate like a newsroom for national and local media
when science stories hit the headlines, thus ensuring that only the Government’s chosen “policy” about a
medical or scientific issue is reported. The SMC provides “training days” for journalists as well as
brainstorming sessions on ways to improve the communication of science through the media. It also
provides off‐the‐record briefings with key figures at the centre of controversial issues who want to
communicate with the media without being quoted directly. It is used by its Director Fiona Fox to promote
the views of industry and to launch fierce attacks against those who question them. It is sponsored by the
Royal College of Physicians, The Science Council, the drug company Pfizer and Merlin Biosciences, amongst
others. The SMC website records Professor Simon Wessely as saying: “We need to defend scientific expertise as
a basis for sound policy decisions”. Its website also states: “Lucy Thorpe and her colleagues at Radio Five Live, and
Professor Simon Wessely urged the SMC staff to find ‘members of the public’ to speak out for science”
(http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/uploadDir/536adminconsultation_report.pdf). It is the case that Health