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Brave Sir Prof Wessely discusses death threats 29th March 2017

Countrygirl

Senior Member
Messages
5,429
Location
UK
Anyone going???? :)


https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/standing-up-for-science-a-panel-discussion-tickets-32226341856

DESCRIPTION
At times, talking honestly about science can be a perilous task, particularly on topics that are entangled in public dialogue and societal debate. There are countless examples of those whom, simply as a result of stating what the evidence is, have been the target of personal abuse and smear campaigns. Some have lost their jobs and a few have even received death threats.

On 29th March, Goldsmiths, University of London, is hosting a panel discussion to explore some of the difficulties scientists and journalists face when standing up for science. The event is being organised with Sense about Science, an independent campaigning charity that coordinates the annual John Maddox Prize for Standing up for Science alongside the journal Nature. The prize recognizes the work of extraordinary people who promote sound science and evidence on a matter of public interest, despite facing difficulty or hostility in doing so. Nominations for the 2017 John Maddox Prize will open on the night of the event.

Join three previous John Maddox Prize winners - Dr David Robert Grimes, Professor Elizabeth Loftus, Professor Sir Simon Wessely - and award-winning science journalist Natasha Loder as they discuss their experiences of overcoming adversity to talk about evidence. The discussion is chaired by Tracey Brown, managing director of Sense about Science.

Venue: Lecture theatre LG02, Professor Stuart Hall Building, Goldsmiths University of London

Date: Wednesday 29th March Time: 7.00pm - 9.00pm

General Admission Price: £8 (incl. wine reception)
 
Brave Sir Simon rides forth...
upload_2017-3-1_20-35-30.jpeg
 

Cheesus

Senior Member
Messages
1,292
Location
UK
There are countless examples of those whom, simply as a result of stating what the evidence is, have been the target of personal abuse and smear campaigns. Some have lost their jobs and a few have even received death threats.

I would never condone death threats, but if you create evidence to suit your own beliefs, it is hardly surprising that the people who are negatively affected by that become aggressive.

You reap what you sow.
 

keenly

Senior Member
Messages
814
Location
UK
Simon Wessely is going to look like an absolute fool once medical science finally figures out what CFS/ME is. I think he likes the attention all of his nonsense brings him.

He
I would never condone death threats, but if you create evidence to suit your own beliefs, it is hardly surprising that the people who are negatively affected by that become aggressive.

You reap what you sow.

Establishment shills do not get death threats. Those who stand up to the Establishment do, and many end up dead. Simon is a sociopath.
 

Research 1st

Severe ME, POTS & MCAS.
Messages
768
Is this a genuine image? I am writing the following believe it is genuine.....

What a disgusting and offensive image this is to people with CFS and ME, diseases increasingly
being shown to be autoimmune in nature, of which at least an estimated 1 in 4 are housebound and some even die of their disease in extreme cases (usually young adults who became very disabled as children or teenagers).

On the grounds this image was produced with permission of Sense about Science and Goldsmiths University of London, to use their logo's, then they need to be informed about the level of distress this image causes and given an opportunity to remove it, and apologize.


Other than the fact it's graphic design is blatantly sensationalist and remiscent of soviet communist propaganda, here is why this image is not acceptable when doctors are involved:

If as a UK doctor registered with the GMC your name was on this poster, never mind giving a 'talk':
1) Against a sexual minority (LGBT) you would be reprimanded immediately.
2) Against a faith group such as Jew or Muslim, you would be reprimanded immediately.
3) Against a disabled group, you would be reprimanded immediately.

But if you do this against CFS sufferers? You win awards, it seems.

Disability hatred, is what it is.

If anyone knows how to contact Peter Tatchell on Twitter (I don't have an account), please let him know and screen grab this fyler image or link it, before the URL is pulled by the person responsible.

https://twitter.com/petertatchell

I am genuinely appalled, and someone with the ability and guts needs to discuss this awful image on Youtube and other social media such as CFS groups on Facebook to show how people diagnosed with ME CFS are treated with utter disdain and disgust, by doctors. The very people paid to protect patients.

Example of how doctors sensibly protect patients in the UK and developed world:

*Sufferers of Schizophrenia (during a psychotic break) are known to disembowel, torture and eat people and they are NEVER targeted by the medical profession in such a filthy manner as being allegedly ''dangerous'' to other people.

Example of how doctors sensibly protect those of faith groups:


*British medical students (Muslims) have been found to be fighting for a terrorist group - ISIS, in Syria and taken out by RAF drones. Ergo some British medical students who are Muslim are helping terrorists. British medics were also involved in previous terrorist attacks on the UK.

Why does this matter and how is this relevant to CFS?

Sane people with access to the press and academic insituations (such as universities) are aware, these people exampled above are individuals, ergo there is no perpetual propaganda campaign against sufferers of Schizophrenia or British medical students - promoting them as dangerous. It simply wouldn't be allowed. So why is it allowed against the CFS community, who even as individuals, have never harmed anyone?!

This xenophobic discrimination of ME denial (anti disability hatred) must stop and stop before someone very psychologically vulnerable with ME CFS takes their own life out of despair.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/l...imination/#h-harassment-because-of-disability

https://www.gov.uk/report-hate-crime

As I've said, just imagine this image was about a religious or faith group- it would be illegal as it's spreading intolerance of patients as mentally unstable, who aren't even diagnosed with a mental illness!!!!!! Even if they were, targetting patients as 'dangerous' still breaks rules of the GMC code of conduct.

http://www.gmc-uk.org/about/council/register_code_of_conduct.asp
http://www.gmc-uk.org/publications/standards_guidance_for_doctors.asp
http://www.gmc-uk.org/education/undergraduate/professional_behaviour.asp

I'm shocked to see it, I expect it, but still shocked.

What a sad situation this is. You can cross dress as a 6ft 5 bloke in a mini skirt and a wig and be given full protection in society, but you cannot have a crippling disease where you can become bedridden or housebound for life and afford the same protection.

Someone needs to say, no. No more disability discrimination.
Instead we get silence from the BMA, GMC, NICE, NHS and the Department of Health.

No one paid to care about us, does care, because they don't have to care, because like Jimmy Saville there is a 'worry' about changing the status quo. If you are black or gay, you'll know what I mean.

Society needs movements of people to evoke change. Movements of CFS patients can never become reality as they are too disabled to march on the streets.

And so we need to turn to people who do care and use the rules set in places for other minorities to demand equal human rights in a developed western society that is meant to have high standards of human rights.

That is all we ask.
 

user9876

Senior Member
Messages
4,556
Is this a genuine image? I am writing the following believe it is genuine.....

What a disgusting and offensive image this is to people with CFS and ME, diseases increasingly

I wonder if we are misunderstanding the poster and what it is saying is Wessely is going to talk about how he ran a smear campaign against ME patients leaving them threatened with dangerous treatments, no medical care and no benefits.
 

Cinders66

Senior Member
Messages
494
"who promote sound science and evidence on a matter of public interest, despite facing difficulty or hostility"

Why is Wessely a recipient then?

The uk act as if all scientists and scientific endeavour is beyond reproach, some of Wesselys writings play on The establishments disdain for patients not keeping in their place of being seen and not heard. Regardless of recent developments proving the fear/avoidance hypothesis wrong, it seems thought that Wessely should not have met any patient opposition? Death threats and nasty emails are another matter but the two are unfairly conflated by Wessely as one and the same whereas there's legitimate widespread vocal opposition to his approach to CFS and a probably tiny amount of actual personal threats and even then, judging by the supposed threat published in the BMJ which was actually a reworded Bob Dylan song lyric to war mongeurors including words "I hope you die", it's uncertain as to what are being called threats.
 

Countrygirl

Senior Member
Messages
5,429
Location
UK
https://www.theguardian.com/science...s-awarded-2016-john-maddox-prize-false-memory

Here is an article on one of the other panel members; Sir Prof SW is also described as one of the brave who had to endure death threats from people as he tried to promote the/ his truth. :aghhh: Under the heading @We can't let the bullies win.................by the way that is supposed be us..........:bang-head:

Science editor

Thursday 17
November 2016 19.00 GMTLast modified on Wednesday 22 February 2017 17.41 GMT

A leading psychologist whose research on human memory exposed her to death threats, lawsuits, personal abuse and a campaign to have her sacked has won a prestigious prize for her courage in standing up for science.

Professor Elizabeth Loftus endured a torrent of abuse from critics who objected to her work on the unreliable nature of eyewitness testimonies, and her defining research on how people can develop rich memories for events that never happened.

The work propelled Loftus into the heart of the 1990 “memory wars”, when scores of people who had gone into therapy with depression, eating disorders and other common psychological problems, came out believing they had recovered repressed memories for traumatic events, often involving childhood abuse.

Loftus, now a professor of law and cognitive science at the University of California, Irvine, performed a series of experiments that showed how exposure to inaccurate information and leading questions could corrupt eyewitness testimonies. More controversially, she demonstrated how therapy and hypnosis could plant completely false childhood memories in patients. She went on to become an expert witness or consultant for hundreds of court cases.

In the 1990s, thousands of repressed memory cases came to light, with affected patients taking legal action against family members, former neighbours, doctors, dentists and teachers. The accusations tore many families apart. As an expert witness in such cases, Loftus came under sustained attack from therapists and patients who were convinced the new-found memories were accurate. The abuse marked a distinct shift away from the good-natured debates she was used to having in academic journals.

“That’s when the fighting got really dirty,” Loftus told the Guardian. “Whenever you work in an area that challenges people’s wrongheaded, cherished beliefs, it can be difficult. But sometimes it can also be a matter of life and death.”

Loftus was awarded the 2016 John Maddox Prize on Thursday for promoting sound science and evidence on a matter of public interest in the face of deep, personal hostility. The prize is named after Sir John Maddox, the former editor of Nature. He was a fierce champion of science who never stood back from the controversial debates of his time.

Sir Colin Blakemore, a neuroscientist and Maddox Prize judge, said Loftus had had an “enormous impact” on cognitive science. “What makes her such a worthy winner of the John Maddox Prize is her determination to use the lessons from her research to challenge courtroom procedures and the unjustified claims of some psychotherapists,” he said.

The prize is awarded jointly by Nature, the Kohn Foundation, and the charity Sense about Science. Previous winners include the psychiatrist Simon Wessely, who faced death threats for his work on chronic fatigue syndrome and mental health, and Edzard Ernst, a scientist and long-standing critic of alternative medicine.

“The recognition is a good thing,” Loftus told the Guardian. “After you have been through some of the things that happened to me – death threats, insults, lawsuits, people trying to drum up letter writing campaigns to get me fired – it’s really important to have something come along like this.”

Loftus had already received hate mail and death threats, and endured a campaign to have her sacked from the University of Washington in Seattle, when she became embroiled in a gruelling legal battle over a case that claimed to be proof of a repressed memory. Jane Doe had accused her mother of abuse when she was a child caught up in a messy divorce and custody battle, but Loftus’s investigation found it quite possible that no abuse ever took place.
 
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Countrygirl

Senior Member
Messages
5,429
Location
UK
This xenophobic discrimination of ME denial (anti disability hatred) must stop and stop before someone very psychologically vulnerable with ME CFS takes their own life out of despair.

Before someone?????

About ten or more people I have known personally over the years have taken their own lives because of the contempt with which they are treated by the medical profession. One was an assisted suicide. In fact, tomorrow the inquest is being held on a dear friend of 30 years who in total despair following the dismissal of the local medical profession took his life last August after suffering from the illness for ten months. Wessely and co in my opinion bear the blame for these unnecessary deaths...........and he has the cheek to talk of death threats. My friends are dead. His work and influence were more than a mere 'threat'.
 
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