Horse Pucky
Hello Snow Leopard
It is not that people are too emotionally invested in a single horse race as you put it Snow Leopard......- people are emotional because certain punters want to drag the punting paty back to the betting ring, before the horse race is even finished.
Is it unreasonable to allow science the opportunity to fully and throughly explore all the questions that have been raised and remain unanswered that XMRV has generated? I think not. Would you label Nancy Klimas as ''too emotionally invested'' in a single horse race - for wanting the same thing? I doubt it - so why would you attempt to do that to those of us here?
Your use and employment of the term ''too emotionally invested'' comes across as arrogant and derogatory. Can I ask you, ''too emotionally invested'' by who's standards?
And how can you make an assessment (implied by use of the terms too...invested) that individuals have an attachment to any outcome with respect to XMRV? What are you basing that on? How well do you know the people your making this subjective observation of, and how they feel and or what they have going on with their health or lives? Obviously not well enough, otherwise there would have been no need to raise this question/start this thread.
Correction - fact is something that is not in contention. The assertion you make is not fact - as it is contentious and has been strongly debated in a number of threads here. Have you not read them?
If XMRV is disproven - maybe then we can turn our minds and minimal resources (which you seem to have forgotten about) to support other research as heavily....but to do so before hand would be doing a great dis service to the community and is very premature - as is this thread. IMO.
It seems you have some fear based XMRV associated thoughts which is understandable, but please deal with them - rather than attempting to dismantle or undermine support for this area of research by starting threads such as this and using the terminology and statements that you have.
If you dont see it as worthy of your support then fine - move on and use your own resources to start to foster support for other areas - but please do not shoot down those of us who wish to push this forward or pass off your questionable opinion as fact, and dampen the enthusiasm of others in the process.
Please remember, that if XMRV does not pan out, and your looking to support some other resarch or advocacy endeavour - your going to need our support.
ISO
ISO- Well, this is certainly helpful of you. Nice that you are qualified to diagnose questioning of the XMRV as
"fear based XMRV associated thoughts..." Gee, where have we've seen the dismissal of people by invoking psychological diagnosis before? Oh yes, the CDC...
And if that doesn't work, by all means, let's threaten Snow Leopard (and I assume any of us who express concerns) with loss of community support for daring to "shoot down those of us who wish to push this forward...?" Do you feel "shot down ISO?" Maybe you should
get over such insecurity. That's a joke. Really.
It's legitimate for any of us to ask questions and express fears here as far as I'm concerned. Raising the question and expressing doubts or concerns does
not imply anyone is "undermining support" for this direction of research. As you point out, I've read
many a forum post arguing the issue here.
There truly are a lot of us emotionally invested in the outcome of this. I know I am. And apparently you are, ISO, as well or you wouldn't feel the threat of demoralization from Snow Leopards question. That I'm emotionally invested doesn't mean I don't know the difference between my own hopes and hard reality. I've certainly had enough of the latter with this illness that I hold my emotional investment carefully, as perhaps a lot of us are doing as we follow this research. If we can't air fears, concerns and questions here then where? It doesn't make any of us John Coffin to do so.
I've been through 30+ years of wrong and partial answers. Though I'm betting on Mikovits horse myself, that's from horse sense not religion.
A few answers to Snow Leopard's original question:
If it doesn't turn out to be XMRV or some other retrovirus,
a) a host of research is spilling out of this that will push things forward-- cytokine profiles, common factors, potential biomarkers, and more;
b) We've had more light turned on CFS/ME than we've had in 30 years, and high-level researchers have been pulled in, some of whom are having their eyes opened about how devastating this illness is;
c) It's becoming a field where legitimate hard-science researchers can actually investigate without ruining their careers;
d) The moribund, so-called "advocate organizations" are getting outted as ineffectual and enslaved to the status quo, and new advocacy organizations are emerging that may be more likely to kick ass and take names rather than mis-spend funds.
These are just a few. My enthusiasm is un-dampened, even if my logic be all wet.
