Hi guys.
I was excited as you all at first to hear about this, almost hard to believe. I sent a $100 donation this morning in my glee (the potential vindication mainly).
I'm sorry but having read the press release i'm more than a little sceptical, i don't see this holding water at all. Just have a look at this paragraph. Professional researchers don't release reults in this manner (and certainly not without mentioning the figures for the healthy control with the revised techinique), and she's making a wild and unsubstantiated claim for which there is no evidence (that the virus has been implicated as a contributing factor-it hasn't). Sorry scientists don't talk like this. Buisness people promoting thier 'institute' do though.
“Since the original Science paper was submitted, we have continued to refine our test for XMRV and
have surprisingly found that 95 percent ME/CFS samples tested positive for XMRV antibodies in the
plasma. This finding clearly points to the retrovirus as a significant contributing factor in this illness,”
said Judy Mikovits, Ph.D., director of research for WPI and leader of the team that discovered this
association.
Whittemore Peterson Institute
The Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease exists to bring discovery, knowledge, and
effective treatments to patients with illnesses that are caused by acquired dysregulation of both the
immune system and the nervous system, often results in lifelong disease and disability. The WPI is the
first institute in the world dedicated to X associated neuro-immune disease (XAND), and other X
associated diseases, integrating patient treatment, basic and clinical research and medical education.
Perhaps they have found a virus, perhaps it's endemic and perhaps you can find it in most of the healthy population if you look hard enough, we have absolutely no idea. You'd expect a research scientist to be talking about repeating the study with larger sample sizes, not jumping straight into promoting their new facilities and blood tests for hire. Conclusions made are usually conservative and highlight the need for further study, but claims like they're making make the whole thing look pretty suspect.
Let's all hope i'm wrong! Just expressing caution here, we're all running around excited about the news, it'll be a real shame if we turn out to be the fools.
EDIT; what i'm really saying is that my initial excitement has turned to caution. The Press release is unproffessional and illadvised to say the least and the website appears to be for a private clinic, ie. a business. Does anyone know more about the Whittmore Peterson Institute? Is there any literature available from the other studies in their research programme?