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.
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?
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.