DX watch (Susie Chapman)
I can't see why you logged in to let us know that you thought Kevin Short's actions (and your decision to name him specifically) as "misguided".
By entension I assume that you are also criticising the Countess of Mar as being "misguided" as well.
It may be that both Kevin Short and the COM intended to do this for their own reasons and this reasons just aren't known to you.
Kevin Short has been named specifically since Kevin had made a public call for MPs to be written to in a document circulated on November 8 - a correction and follow up to his original commentary, dated November 7, that has already been posted on this forum and in which he had asked
"Is it not time that questions were asked in parliament and elsewhere demanding conclusive proof of these alleged threats against him?"
Since Kevin marked both posts with permission to repost and since he is the author of a call for MPs to be contacted and for questions to be raised in Parliament, I cannot see how he or anyone else should object to his being specifically referred to as the author of such calls.
Circlated November 8:
CORRECTION AND POSSIBLE PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION RE MY POSTING OF 7 NOVEMBER 2012.
To whom it may concern,
Please note:
1. I have made some minor corrections to the posting I made yesterday regarding alleged threats from the ME Community against Professor Simon Wessely and his award of the 2012 John Maddox prize. The updated version of my text is given below and is now available as a pdf at the following link:
http://www.angliameaction.org.uk/docs/wessely-threat-proof.pdf
2. I have been approached by a member of the UK parliament regarding use of my posting as a basis for tabling a parliamentary question. I would encourage as many UK residents as possible to write to their member of parliament (at: The House of Commons, Westminster, London, SW1A 0AA) regarding matters raised below. At the very least, if Professor Wessely has reported ME patients to the Police there should be a dated record of police incident numbers. Whatever the extent of such evidence, I am quite sure that it will still only represent a tiny misguided minority and should NOT be erroneously used to blacken the good name of either all ME patients or helpful professionals using legitimate channels to subject Wessely-School 'CFS/ME' science to appropriate scrutiny.
Anglia ME Action [UK], 7 November 2012.
http://www.angliameaction.org.uk/docs/wessely-threat-proof.pdf
contact@angliameaction.org.uk
PLEASE CAN WE SEE THE OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE OF WIDESPREAD M.E. PATIENT "THREATS" AGAINST PROFESSOR SIMON WESSELY?
To whom it may concern,
Re the recent award of the John Maddox Prize to Professor Simon Wessely for 'standing up for science': "Simon Wessely, Professor of Psychological Medicine at Kings College London, is awarded the Prize for his ambition and courage in the field of ME (chronic fatigue syndrome) and Gulf War syndrome, and the way he has dealt bravely with intimidation and harassment when speaking about his work and that of colleagues."[1]
Professor Wessely, and sections of the media, have previously claimed that he has been the object of death threats[2]. The widespread press coverage of which in 2011 just happened to coincide with the publication of an International Expert Consensus Panel document[3]. That ME International Consensus Criteria (ME-ICC) document eruditely refuted much of what Professor Wessely has claimed with regard to both the nature of and the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of the serious neurological disease that is Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).
One of the authors of the ME-ICC document, Dr Terry Mitchell, was until recently one of the most experienced consultant NHS ME specialists in the UK - having cared for over ten thousand ME patients over many years. He had previously expressed grave concerns about Professor Wessely's favoured CBT/GET 'treatments', the unrepresentative nature of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guideline development group on 'CFS/ME' and its apparent skewed appraisal of the scientific evidence base[4]. Along with other documentation[5], objective study of material produced by said international panel would, I believe, considerably undermine the case for Professor Wessely being awarded a prize for scientific excellence with regard to "ME (chronic fatigue syndrome)".
Turning to the matter of alleged threats against Professor Wessely and given the associated grave accusations of widespread abuse from the ME community. Is it not time that questions were asked in parliament and elsewhere demanding conclusive proof of these alleged threats against him? Have such matters been investigated by the Police and been shown to have any substantial basis to them? Is there for example actual evidence of Police issuing warnings to individuals from the ME community? Has the Crown Prosecution Service ever issued court proceedings against any such individual from the ME community? If independent evidence of individuals threatening violence does exist, are they many in number and can they be fairly described as being representative of the ME community?
Claims of such threats, are not only thus far lacking publicly verifiable supportive evidence to my knowledge, they are lacking perspective. It feels to me like Professor Wessely and sections of the media are effectively daemonising an entire generation of unfortunate people with serious WHO-classified (ICD-10-G93.3) neurological illness[6]. All because, as far as I am aware, perhaps a few so far unnamed, unrepresentative individuals have allegedly issued threats against his personal safety.
There most certainly is however to my knowledge evidence available for public scrutiny that Professor Wessely has misrepresented both the nature of the disease that is Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) and its World Health Organisation (WHO) classification and nomenclature[7]. There is also serious evidence that the kind of psychosocial views on "ME (chronic fatigue syndrome)" advocated by Professor Wessely and his colleagues have had very unfortunate consequences for patients[8].
It would clearly be wrong for any person with ME to issue a credible threat of bodily harm to anyone. Is it not however understandable that vulnerable patients will express different orders of frustration if irresponsible misrepresentation has in fact been done by someone who has a professional duty of care and scientific accuracy? Moreover, there is a world of difference between patients venting understandable frustration and patients actually issuing threats of bodily harm. Do we not need objective evidence to show that Professor Wessely's claims of "intimidation" properly differentiates between the two? We also clearly need assurance that Professor Wessely and his media friends differentiate between abusive threats and legitimate erudite complaints regarding alleged professional and scientific misconduct[9]. Do not all medical professionals, particularly those receiving substantial public funding, need to be properly accountable to professional and public bodies?
In summary, if there is any hard evidence that ME patients have actually gone beyond venting frustration and have issued actual "threats" regarding Professor Wessely's personal safety then the extent and objectivity of that evidence needs to be independently verified and put into proper context and perspective? It is not right that tens of thousands of innocent and vulnerable patients are associated with the alleged misdemeanours of a few and denied appropriate biomedical care that is increasingly justified by good science[10].
Anglia ME Action [UK], 7 November 2012.
http://www.angliameaction.org.uk/docs/wessely-threat-proof.pdf
contact@angliameaction.org.uk
REFERENCES:
[1] Source, Sense about Science, November 6, 2012:
http://www.senseaboutscience.org/pages/2012-maddox-prize.html
[2] On BBC Radio 4, Friday, 29 July 2011, for example:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9550000/9550947.stm
[3] Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: International Consensus Criteria [ME-ICC], Carruthers et al, Journal of Internal Medicine, 2011. Doi:
10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02428x:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02428.x/abstract
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02428.x/pdf
Also see the important 2012 follow-up document from the International Consensus Panel:
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis - Adult & Paediatric: International Consensus Primer for Medical Practitioners, Carruthers et al, International Consensus Panel, 2012. ISBN 978-0-9739335-3-6:
www.angliameaction.org.uk/docs/ME-ICC-Primer-2012.pdf
[4] Dr Terry Mitchell, witness statement to the UK High Court, 23 June 2008:
http://www.angliameaction.org.uk/NICEJRdocs/Terry_Mitchell_WS.pdf
[5] See, for example, documentation at the 'ME Action UK' website:
http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/
[6] 'ME/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (benign)' is classified along with 'PVFS/Postviral Fatigue Syndrome' by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the tenth revision of 'The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems' (ICD-10) in chapter VI, diseases of the nervous system, other disorders of the nervous system, other disorders of the brain (G93.3) - ICD-10-G93.3. See:
http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2010/en
[7] See for example the many documented reports and sources of Professor Wessely's statements and claims at the 'ME Action UK' website:
http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/
[8] See for example the case of Sophia Mirza in 2005, a young ME patient who was accused of exaggerating and misattributing her illness, was forcibly removed into psychiatric 'care' and died shortly after from renal failure. The subsequent autopsy revealed considerable damage to her central nervous system along with other serious physical pathologies long associated with ME:
http://www.sophiaandme.org.uk/
http://www.sophiaandme.org.uk/docsindex/212.jpg
[9] Such as, for example, Professor Malcolm Hooper's concerns with the widely criticised MRC-funded 'PACE Trial into CFS/ME' - see:
http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/COMPLAINT-to-Lancet-re-PACE.htm
http://meactionuk.org.uk/Update-on-the-PACE-Trial-110712.htm
http://meactionuk.org.uk/Further_Articles.htm
[10] See for example the Website of 'Invest in ME' a national UK charity running fully accredited annual scientific conferences in Westminster:
http://www.investinme.org/index.htm
And see:
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: International Consensus Criteria [ME-ICC], Carruthers et al, Journal of Internal Medicine, 2011. Doi:
10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02428x:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02428.x/abstract
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02428.x/pdf
Also see the important 2012 follow-up document from the International Consensus Panel:
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis - Adult & Paediatric: International Consensus Primer for Medical Practitioners, Carruthers et al, International Consensus Panel, 2012. ISBN 978-0-9739335-3-6:
www.angliameaction.org.uk/docs/ME-ICC-Primer-2012.pdf
[MESSAGE ENDS - PERMISSION TO REPOST ALL OF THE ABOVE].
http://www.angliameaction.org.uk/docs/wessely-threat-proof.pdf