• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Lipkin Interview.

CBS

Senior Member
Messages
1,522
I send you there deliberately. I think it is good for PRers to go to the "other side " occasionally!

The discussion that follows on the "other forum", particularly the second post by Kent Heckenlively, is very interesting (I'm not going to paste it you hear, you'll have to go back - if you dare).

Lipkin seems to be a very complicated person. He has not always been on the most productive side of research into ME (apparently similar to his involvement with autism) and yet now he seems to have a real commitment to better understanding ME. In his presentation on June 24, 2011 at the WPI, he spoke openly about his 1999 study of Swedish CFS patients funded by the CDC ("Absence of evidence of Borna disease virus infection in Swedish patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome") and how there were two conclusions that could have been drawn from the study's data ("These results do not support a role for BDV in pathogenesis of CFS" OR that the CFS patients in the study had clear immune abnormalities ("immunoreactivity to BDV proteins observed in Swedish CFS patients by ELISA may reflect infection with related microbial agents that induce cross-reactivity with conformational determinants on BDV proteins (Kliche et al, 1996) and b-galactosidase, the serologic fndings are also consistent with nonspecifc polyclonal B-cell activation")). As several posters on the other forum point out, seeing severely ill patients at the WPI likely impressed upon him the severity of ME. During his talk at the WPI, he stated that in retrospect he felt that the 1999 publication had placed the emphasis upon the "wrong" conclusion (implying that his study played an indirect role prolonging confusion surrounding CFS by not fostering an interest in the immunological abnormalities of ME/CFS).
 

Boule de feu

Senior Member
Messages
1,118
Location
Ottawa, Canada
The discussion that follows on the "other forum", particularly the second post by Kent Heckenlively, is very interesting (I'm not going to paste it you hear, you'll have to go back - if you dare).

Lipkin seems to be a very complicated person. He has not always been on the most productive side of research into ME (apparently similar to his involvement with autism) and yet now he seems to have a real commitment to better understanding ME. In his presentation on June 24, 2011 at the WPI, he spoke openly about his 1999 study of Swedish CFS patients funded by the CDC ("Absence of evidence of Borna disease virus infection in Swedish patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome") and how there were two conclusions that could have been drawn from the study's data ("These results do not support a role for BDV in pathogenesis of CFS" OR that the CFS patients in the study had clear immune abnormalities ("immunoreactivity to BDV proteins observed in Swedish CFS patients by ELISA may reflect infection with related microbial agents that induce cross-reactivity with conformational determinants on BDV proteins (Kliche et al, 1996) and b-galactosidase, the serologic fndings are also consistent with nonspecifc polyclonal B-cell activation")). As several posters on the other forum point out, seeing severely ill patients at the WPI likely impressed upon him the severity of ME. During his talk at the WPI, he stated that in retrospect he felt that the 1999 publication had placed the emphasis upon the "wrong" conclusion (implying that his study played an indirect role prolonging confusion surrounding CFS by not fostering an interest in the immunological abnormalities of ME/CFS).

I read it too while I was "out there" - yes, I had the guts to do it. - LOL
This comment did scare me a bit because Lipkin is depicted as the "greatest of the world".
What if he does not find anything? Will it mean that everybody will stop looking because he says so?
I realize that my comment might be a bit simplistic... but bare with me.
My brain is getting smaller by the minute.