The UK BBC report *Half the story!*

Ok, finally the bbc is reporting some information about ME/CFS....but its not mentioning XMRV, MLVs, retroviruses or any named virus, they are simply saying a Virus!

On the day of the 1st XMRV conference in USA, a study has been reported on the BBC about a ME/CFS 'virus link' found in children!
They are reporting that, Scientists in Scotland have found further evidence that ME, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, could be caused by a virus.
Blood tests conducted on children with the illness found abnormalities in their white blood cells which is seen as an indication of a viral infection.


This has made it onto the TV, BBC Breakfast news/ BBC news 24.

BBC website
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-11204884

BBC Radio
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8975000/8975412.stm?forumid=331851

BBC Short clip
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11209605?forumid=331851


Ironically immune abnormalities are also to be discussed at the imminent XMRV conference, Will these immune abnormalities give evidence that a retrovirus is causing ME/CFS?

It does seem the BBC are only reporting *half* the story. (It seems weird!)

I am pleased to see them report on ME/CFS however I would like them to report all the *facts* on ME/CFS....and that means mention XMRV and the ground breaking research on retroviruses!
We are still waiting for the BBC to follow the Alter study, maybe they never will now.


The conference starts in the USA later on today...........
Tomorrow a study will be presented to the Conference by Dr. Judy Mikovits - on infectious XMRV in the blood of UK, CFS patients.

It's also just been shown on BBC News24 - I hope Wessely and his friends are watching : )

Yes Im pleased to see this on tv, but i am concerned they aren't reporting the whole story.

A friend of mine just rang to say she saw ME on the news but says how come they dont mention the name of the virus and how come its only been found in children?
They aren't explaining this very clearly!

After the eerie silence on the NIH paper I will take even quarter of a story on ME/CFS. No, they aren't explaining it that well but at least it's in the right direction I suppose It's odd that they mobilized on this but not the NIH paper - I suspect that the general dumbing down of the news in the past decade is a factor in this.

When you said 'Only half the story' I thought they were going to mark the start of the XMRV conference with a series of stories on evidence that CFS is a primarily psychological condition!

Strange they'd write about this work but not the Alter study. Very odd to have no mention of MRVs in the story - maybe they were just rehashing a press release about this particular piece of research? But it looks like they did more than that.

I think they are reporting the

Biochemical and Vascular Aspects of Pediatric Chronic Fatigue Syndrome study

At 6pm on the front page of the BBC News website, this story is currently the 3rd most shared - A lot of people will be seeing this

ME/CFS 'virus link' found in children

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

Today I had someone who yesterday had the typical and frustrating viewpoint of ME/CFS, ask me if I had seen this and wasn't it interesting and big news that they think a virus a causes it? I said yes, it's really not the whole story and it was always going to be something like this.

Anyway, if even a few hundred or thousand people change their perceptions of this illness (or even question theirs) then that can only be good.

The cynic in me (like Mark ^ and others have already said) says this was the real reason for todays coverage.

Great quote under the video of that boy: "Sometimes you just want to punch someone"!

Funny they finally report a virus, but the study wasn't even looking at viruses.

However, this study will actually be a step in showing (or at least supporting) causation. Will it not? They are suggesting a correlation between the virus and these symptoms.

I emailed BBC Breakfast show this morning telling them about the XMRV Conference and that Dr Judy would be presenting information about XMRV and a UK study which I took part in. I also mentioned that we are banned from giving blood as from November and it would be great if they would do a follow up. Needless to say I haven't heard anything.
Pam

Great news and interesting study! Can anybody link me to the full text?

Now let's hope this will be the stepping stone for the BBC to cover more new ME/CFS science. Starting with tomorrow's positive XMRV study by Dr. Mikovits et al.

NVM, found it!

Staking a claim for the Empire

After blatantly ignoring the recent developments across the Atlantic (in the colonies don't you know,what !) , it does seem that the jingoisticly blinkered BBC are presenting an inadequate and misleading version of the viral association story here.
Perhaps we'll yet be able to claim this discovey in the name of the British Empire !

Chin Chin.

TGOP :worried::Retro redface: (embarrassed British Citizen)

BBC NewsWatch

You can send comments on stories run by the BBC on their NewsWatch page, but you will need to register in order to do so.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/newsid_3950000/newsid_3959100/3959111.stm

NewsWatch does seem to be editorially independent and has often held the editors of other departments to account. Hopefully they will in this case too.

TGOP

I think journalists as a species are stupid and lazy, and they only report news stories that are handed to them ready made.
They probably got a good press release on the Scottish children's study, so they regurgitated it on air.
They will report the MULV/XMRV discoveries made by Alter et al when an international news conference is held, which dishes out all the information to them on a plate.