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Article: WPI Says No to Retraction Request/ Levy Study Dashes Hopes /NCI Shuts the Door on XMRV

:D That actually gave me a laugh....some things are just too hard for Science. I think XMRV has shown us the kind of effort the federal govt and the research establishment can put into something when they want to...... Pubmed brings up 120 papers on XMRV or associated with it since the WPI paper in Oct of 2009......
 
If they drop retroviral research in ME, I don't think there will be any silver linings. It will be back to GET and CBT, basically no real treatment. It is too bad that some folks are quite willing to allow others to suffer as long as it does not affect them and theirs.

True ME is obviously caused by infection and there are only 2 possible reasons for the blackballing of WPI. Either they discovered something that others wish to remain hidden or others want to steal their discovery for their own profit.

Time will tell. I am not sure I will be here to see it, but I do believe in justice/karma.
 
When that paper came out I was totally surprised and suspicious, Levy said today in a telephone interview. Who knew there would be pressure on the government to do these expensive studies? Ive never been around anything quite so dramatic and misleading and misunderstood for so long. There are financial ramifications, and medical and health ramifications.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...-ban-may-have-been-flawed.html?forumid=331851

pressure on the government? good grief, Levy, do you not know the government has thrown us in the dungeon for the past three decades? This is money that should have been spent on ME/CFS in any case, XMRV or no XMRV... and similar money should be spent on this disease every month.
 
Hi Willow

Thanks for posting a link to that article.

Levy was suspicious? Of what?

Who knew there would be pressure on the Govt to do these expensive studies?

Yes, given the history of HIV, who would have thought it warranted consideration or should have even been entertained? Completely shocking and surprising.:rolleyes:


He hasn't been around anything quite so dramatic, misleading or misunderstood?


No I suppose not. He has had little or nothing to do with ME CFS where such is common place sadly.


There are financial ramifications, and medical and health ramifications, I hear you say Mr Levy?


Health implications. ..Oh yes - indeed there are Mr Levy and they have enormous ramificaitons


Financial you say Mr Levy? As in, less money for your scientific areas of choice? :rolleyes:

WPI needs to concentrate on enterovirus infections as the cause of ME, history clearly shows that they are implicated in all outbreaks.

This is common sense.

Common sense is not so common, unfortunately.

With the aggressive stance against WPI and XMRV, I fear that a similar campaign would be mounted against research disproving this connection too Tulip.

It is conveniently overlooked by Levy et al, that the lombardi study was done in association with the NCI and Cleeveland Clinic. Further, what about Lo Alters work? Was Levy surprised and sucispicious about that too? Pfff!

Lets face it, the reason there are over reaching statements coming from some quaters on the science associated with XMRV is because they believe CFS is a psycho somatic illness, with no real underlying biological cause and or they want it to remain known as such. ie XMRV is only found in real illnesses like prostate cancer! And sadly, ME is burried in there.

Further study on enteroviruses would be welcome, but I dont think it is going to 'save the day''. There is sufficient literature on enteroviruses as the cause of ME, yet it is being ignored.

Based on watching developments unfold with regard to XMRV and the misleading statements being thrown out by scientists in this area, I dont think research is the answer anymore.
 
Thanks for the "current" situation in a nutshell Cort - hopefully time will tell. Never doubted ME/CFS viral anyway. KdeM seems to be finding and treating viruses. (MLVs ? same family) so far. On a lighter note much enjoyed the elusive "beastie" in your heading !. Also one has to ask why it is there are so many XRMV positives (? KdeM tests).
 
When that paper came out I was totally surprised and suspicious, Levy said today in a telephone interview. Who knew there would be pressure on the government to do these expensive studies? Ive never been around anything quite so dramatic and misleading and misunderstood for so long. There are financial ramifications, and medical and health ramifications.

What a peculiar statement! I can't make hide nor hair of what it means.
 
Back in the late 80's levy worked w/ carol jessop. He conducted and published some immune studies on this plague. He also collaborated with Kilmas . Here's one I dug up :

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PII0140-6736(91)91440-6/abstract

This part is fuzzy memory-- maybe someone else can remember and fill in the pieces -- I seem to remember for awhile there was a clinic at UCSF he supported. Loss of funding shut it down.

Kinda surprised at his comments. He knows this illness. Maybe it was somehow taken out of context....
"...Ive never been around anything quite so dramatic and misleading and misunderstood for so long. There are financial ramifications, and medical and health ramifications.
maybe he is referring to cfs/me and not xmrv specifically?
or maybe that is wishful thinking on my part....

I'm with Francelle, all so strange and peculiar.
 
True ME is obviously caused by infection and there are only 2 possible reasons for the blackballing of WPI. Either they discovered something that others wish to remain hidden or others want to steal their discovery for their own profit.

You seemed to have left out a 3rd and probably the most likely reason... maybe WPI is just plain wrong.

And it's not "obviously" caused by infection. Many people believe it may be caused by environmental toxins such as heavy metals.
 
If WPI are just plain wrong, then how do you explain the Bieger study?

Dr Bieger said at the conference that their initial study was negative. They did what other groups would not (apart from Lo and Alter, who also got positives), they went back to the WPI and worked with their help. The second try was successful
 
Dr Bieger said at the conference that their initial study was negative. They did what other groups would not (apart from Lo and Alter, who also got positives), they went back to the WPI and worked with their help. The second try was successful

The question is: Did the help from WPI involve any laboratory materials at all? Because in that case, it could be that contaminated material was then transmitted to the German lab, explaining the posivites in the second try.
 
The question is: Did the help from WPI involve any laboratory materials at all? Because in that case, it could be that contaminated material was then transmitted to the German lab, explaining the posivites in the second try.

That is the obvious question to ask Camilla. I wish we knew! Exciting if no laboratory materials were exchanged though. I have wanted to ask this same question about the KDM testing in Belgium. Have they used reagents or lab materials from the WPI?

The other question I want to ask is how can it be that one lab (WPI) has some select methodology to find this retrovirus that other labs & retrovirologists haven't got or worked out? It's outside of my field of expertise so not really sure how it works. Is it EVEN possible?
 
I had a talk to someone at the IiME conference (can't say who). Patient select was supposedly very important in the Beiger study. That and a change in their techniques made the difference.

Yes, obviously if a contaminated sample of some sort was sent or taken to Germany it could cause problems. Dr Beiger is well aware of what they obvious problems are and his is testing for contamination.

Francelle, deciding the methodology is very important, hence the Blood Working Group. If you read the reports from that you will see that even the day the blood samples are processed on made a big difference in results.
 
When that paper came out I was totally surprised and suspicious, Levy said today in a telephone interview. Who knew there would be pressure on the government to do these expensive studies? Ive never been around anything quite so dramatic and misleading and misunderstood for so long. There are financial ramifications, and medical and health ramifications.

What a peculiar statement! I can't make hide nor hair of what it means.

I agree...It's such strange wording that I wonder if the reporter got the jist of it right and the wording wrong. I think he was always suspicious the retroviral connection perhaps given that CFS has never seemed to be contagious - and he's clearly upset about the Lipkin study being done....but he';s way out of the loop about putting pressure on the govt...of course pressure would be put on the govt....to do this in a conclusive fashion and thanks goodness for that....we deserve to have a definitive answer and its certainly the money to get one.