The more I think about this the more 'not good' it is.
However much the patients support the WPI it is in an embattled position in the research community. They need all the support they can get. The fact that the man who's name is on the building is apparently not going to be associated with it at all (not even as an advisor?) - and is going to continue his practice just down the road - seems very strange! The announcement didn't say that Dr. Peterson is going to continue on as a senior advisor or something like that. If that's going to happen they should definitely say so and I'm surprised that they wouldn't as a matter of fact do that.
For me - if we don't hear more about this - if the WPI clams up and doesn't talk about it; if Dr. Peterson doesn't clarify why he left - then its all bad news. They know that people are going to think the worst. I've heard rumors about Dr. Peterson being not on board with Dr. Mikovits on how the WPI was going about this dating back to the CFSAC Meeting in late October. They were just rumors albeit from good sources - so I never mentioned them. Now this happens. They really need to clear the air.
If Dr. Peterson does not want the stress of the Medical Director's job - why not say so and spare the WPI the fallout? If it was planned from the beginning then he should say so and help this institute he's worked so hard to build. If you built up something precious and you knew that stepping away from it would hurt it wouldn't you do everything to ensure that that didn't happen? I would be out there placating everyone's worse fears. I would be on Facebook blogging and reassuring everyone. I would be very transparent about this.
The WPI has taken the announcement off of Facebook. Maybe they're preparing something more. I'm in the discuss everything camp so maybe I go too far in that direction but I don't think this is something you just move on from after a brief statement.
Maybe they simply made a mistake in how they presented this initially; more information and transparency would help enormously at this point.
Cort,
You've articulated some misgivings I've had for a while about Dr. M."s somewhat combative style and propensity to make off the cuff remarks, often about unpublished data, that confound many of us.
From my observations Dr. Peterson he's not a man who seeks confrontation and may have been left in rhe position of defending one too many positions with which he didn't agree for the sake of that WPI, and more importantly for him - I think , CFS patients. He's been our champion for more than 25 years and has my ultimate respect. There is no replacing Dr. Peterson.
I can't see a complete cutting of ties as part of a planned retirement. Perhaps he was dripping hints about this departure.
I too hope we see transpareny Cort referenced.