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Dr Charles Shepherd give BBC Radio Interview

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
The ME Association has been offered the top slot on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme tomorrow morning (Friday) to discuss the present state of ME research in the UK.

MEA medical adviser Dr Charles Shepherd is expected to be interviewed at 8.10am with an earlier recorded package presented by BBC science correspondent Tom Fielden, which is expected to feature interviews with Professor Simon Wessely and Dr Esther Crawley.

If youre near a radio, start listening at about 7.45am to catch Fieldens report.

Of course, this announcement comes with the usual warning. The item may be squeezed out if a major news event breaks. We were trumped by the Public Sector
Pensions story this morning.


PS For those outside the UK, the 'Today' is widely regarded as Britain's top early morning news show and sets the political agenda in the UK for the day. If there's a nuclear war, British's (little) fleet of nuclear submarines has instructions to listen in to the programme to check whether there is still life over here,

Tony Britton
Publicity Manager, ME Association
Home-based: 60 Broadgate, Weston, Spalding PE12 6HY
Tel: 01406 370293 Mob: 07880 502927
ME Association website
Follow us on Facebookand Twitter


The preceding announcement was from CO-CURE. Bye, Alex
 

currer

Senior Member
Messages
1,409
If the nuclear submarines are instructed to listen to the Today programme I guess it must be the Voice of the government.

I bet we will all be instructed to believe that XMRV is over, but that they are so very concerned about us and doing their absolute best to get to grips with the puzzle of ME - .......But oh! ..."just too difficult!"

If I hear the word "heterogeneous" I will throw something at the radio.
 

currer

Senior Member
Messages
1,409
My God, - Death threats mentioned in the headline leading up the the interview! They have really got it in for us.

We are sick and untreated for our illness and they are portraying us as terrorists.

This is very crude propaganda, so crude that in fact it is counter-productive.
 

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
BBC Radio 4 - Today program - interview with Simon Wessely, re patient threats and 'campaign of abuse'.

There was not much balance here.

The interviewer bought into Simon Wessley's propaganda and regurgitated the line that apparently we would rather have an incurable retrovirus than a mental illness.

Interview is at about 1hour 10 mins into program. (7.10 am) 29th July 2011.

Listen again:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9550000/9550929.stm

Contact the Today Program here and demonstrate that we are very reasonable people, but very frustrated:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/contact_today/default.stm

This is our chance to get represented on mainstream media, so let's write some really excellent quality correspondence, explaining the issues.
The media often say that they get more correspondence about ME/CFS than with any other subject, so let's get to work!

Charles Shepherd is on at about 8.10 am, which will be about 2 hours 10 mins into the recording of the program.

Listen live here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_fourfm
 

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
BBC Radio 4 - Any Questions

Apparently the same subject will be discussed on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions this evening as well.

Any Questions - Friday 8pm. (Repeated on Saturdays at 13:10)

Listen live:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_fourfm

Any Questions website - listen again - Episode 29th July 2011.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qgvj


Any Answers

The public get a chance to respond to Any Questions on Any Answers, on Saturday afternoon at 2pm. Phone lines open at 12.30pm. (30th July 2011)

See bottom of page for contact details:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qgvj

Any Answers - Listen again - 30th July 2011:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qmmy
 

Enid

Senior Member
Messages
3,309
Location
UK
I suppose at least the arguments are aired in public now (the BBC having to take a position of neutrality - all sides - what do they know of ME). Whole thing to me thoroughly irritating. One just has to see all the infections and/or viruses needing treatment by friends on PR to see how far the UK has to go yet. Your comment about our "little" fleet of nuclear submarines very apt Alex !
 

currer

Senior Member
Messages
1,409
I am astounded. It was surreal. In retrospect "heterogeneous" would have been an improvement.
 

currer

Senior Member
Messages
1,409
Enid there was no neutrality. It was overt propaganda. Surely it will alienate many medical people - it was so biased.

One interesting thing, though, is that this interview reveals how identified with ME Wessely still is, despite his statements to the contrary.
 

Enid

Senior Member
Messages
3,309
Location
UK
The old Weasel et al at their games again - as if in a 6th form debating chamber and equally ignorant. And yes currer shifting them (well him mostly) out completely from their embedded position in medicine here - ME in particular - gods of the "gaps"- has still far to go. Pretty obvious the BBC has stumbled into a position of "fools step in where angels fear to go".
 

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
Charles Shepherd is on at 8.09am.

However bad the interview with Simon Wessely was, at least this gives us a mainstream platform to respond to. They may well follow it up after receiving our responses.
 

Enid

Senior Member
Messages
3,309
Location
UK
Just hope he can bring all the international research findings in - has anyone in the UK bothered to read the multisystem pathologies now found. (This refers of course to UK medical establishmen).
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
Just switched on before 8am and got the hourly news review - there was a brief summary item that CFS patients are issuing death threats to researchers and Simon Wesseley and Esther Crawley's quotes about intimidation were replayed (great, that's going to be every hour for the rest of the day). The very next summary item was that a trial of stem cell therapy for people with MS is about to start. That contrast just said it all right there, pretty much.

However, next up was Dr Shepherd and I thought he did a reasonably good job - he stressed the difference between neuro-endocrine-immune ME and binbag diagnosis CFS, talked about the total lack of govt funding of biomedical research and overemphasis on psychiatry. But he talked about needing to subgroup CFS patients, which I think is not the right thing to be saying - CFS is a binbag diagnosis and we shouldn't be subgrouping it, we should be taking ME out of CFS and getting on with researching ME.

Wesseley and Crawley's attitude sickens me. In all of their talk about the 0.01% of people with CFS who threaten them, they say nothing to acknowledge the decades of suffering of the other 99.99% of patients or the desperate need for biomedical research to get to the bottom of their disease. They seem to think it's all about themselves. If I were in their position and getting death threats, I'd be saying, it's appalling that we're getting these death threats - it's a terrible shame that this kind of thing frightens off researchers because there are hundreds of thousands of patients enduring decades of terrible suffering.

To be clear, I believe the threats and intimidation are wrong. But these two must know, better than anyone, that in any large, random population there will be a tiny percentage who are unbalanced enough to behave in that way - there will be in MS, Parkinson's, cancer, you name it - it's the situation of people with ME that leads our tiny percentage to act out in this way. If people with other biomedical diseases were getting our treatment we'd see the same reaction. They're using that 0.01% as a stick to beat the other 99.99% of us with.

I'm just disgusted.
 

Enid

Senior Member
Messages
3,309
Location
UK
Well if they pleading death threats to further their own cause ( I only heard many years ago of W afraid to attend a meeting of ME suffers whilst trying to promote his mumbo-jumbo) - they should call the police. It seems for the most part any disagreement with their own psycho theories is deemed threatening. Suggest they see a Psycho.
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
Your comment about our "little" fleet of nuclear submarines very apt Alex !

Hi Enid, it was a nice line but alas I cannot claim credit - that honour goes to currer. I would like to listen but I think it would just be a waste of several hours - but I thought you guys deserved to know it was on, so you could decide if there was anything that should be done about it. Maybe I will listen if I can summon up the stomach for it. Bye, Alex
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
[...] but I thought you guys deserved to know it was on, so you could decide if there was anything that should be done about it. Maybe I will listen if I can summon up the stomach for it. Bye, Alex

Thanks, alex - I hadn't known it was going to be on and don't normally listen to R4 in the morning (all that arguing that they do!).

It wasn't a pleasant listen but it's useful to know what my friends will be hearing! They are supportive but it's important to know what's being fed to them on the radio. The Today programme is a very authoritative radio news programme here and giving Wessely & Crawley this kind of national exposure sends a message.

I just heard the 9am news summary and fortunately, ME wasn't on it so at least it won't be repeated ad nauseam.
 

ukme

Senior Member
Messages
169
Could someone change the spelling to 'Shepherd' on the title of this thread? We should get his name right at least!
 

gregf

Senior Member
Messages
144
Location
Sydney Australia
I tried listening in live but could not get streaming to work on the IPhone. (It's too cold to sit at the PC).

Weasels public suggestion of death threats from us could be an attempt for it to become self fulfilling.

If an ME patient does ring him up now, or even worse the BBC, and make a death threat it will be recorded and replayed allowing him to say "you see".

So it is important no one does provide any abusive responses. Be calm and rational.