Fwiw. Comment deemed 'spam' on Disqus:
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This is an excellent commentary, not least for being so benevolent in giving Sharpe the benefit of the doubt given the secrecy and (by implication of the non-responses to a request for information) reluctance to provide proper evidence of the complete lecture, such that Lubet does not 'pronounce' on the basis of the abstract alone. A very professional approach. Sadly unmatched by a similar professionalism on the side of the PACE PI.
As a patient I don't have to be so even handed. I suspect the short abstract is indicative of the presentation itself. The irony is of course that the 'deniers' with all the backing of an Establishment political clout (not to mention thumbscrews on UK media) are indeed the members of the cabal sometimes known as The Wessely School, of which Peter White is a central character. When he says "The use of such co-ordinated pressure group action against science was prominently seen in the field of climate change research but is now emerging in other areas." he is describing himself & the juggernaut of the BPS model which via MUPS is invading every area of British medical life from the top down. It's insidious and very worrying.
We know that PACE has acquired a reputation for being an example of such problematic research practice that it is now being used, & with some amusement in some quarters, in US university lectures and presentations as an example of how NOT to 'do' research. For anyone in doubt about quite how bad the PACE Trial actually is and might ponder the calibre of mathematician who recognises its flaws and is prepared to write about them, look no further than Recbecca Goldin, mathematician par excellence (and clearly a far better statistician that those who cobbled the PACE Trial papers or whom The Lancet employed for its 'endless rounds of peer review' ): (links seem to trigger a spam response. for interest please search for "PACE: The research that sparked a patient rebellion and challenged medicine. Rebecca Goldin').
As a patient it is a relief to witness people of equivalent calibre in their different fields interrogating the 'evidence' that the BPS/ Wessely School have been promulgating for years, and finding it wanting. Thankfully we now have Nobel laureates at work to untangle the intricacies of the mechanism of this severe and very disabling disease (and it has nothing to do with 'aberrant thought processes') , we have journalists (not from the UK needless to say) who are willing to write about the way in which the David and Goliath fight has been maturing over the last 30 years to the detriment of all patients (because until very recently sick patients have had to fight the battle unaided) and we have academics such as Lubet willing to make observations based, in his case, on a proper understanding of what 'ethical' actually means.
When one is told 'black' is 'white' for decade after decade then the acknowledgement that others recognise one's truth for being the reality is reassuring. However, suffering very real and exquisitely disabling physical disease for multiple decades needs more than this. We need care, we need ameliorative options.... biomedical options. The sooner the BPS model is annihilated the better. My thanks goes to all those academics with the intelligence, the morality and the will to change this appalling state of affairs."