The Countess of Mar tackles the SMC over their recent ME factsheet

[Countrygirl]

http://www.meresearch.org.uk/news/forward-me-group-letter-science-media-group/

Forward-ME Group Letter

Forward-ME Group Chair, The Countess of Mar, has written on behalf of the members of the Group to the Chief Executive of the Science Media Centre asking for the SMC “to retract and replace your factsheet on CFS/ME, published on 21 March 2018”.

The factsheet, entitled CFS/ME – The illness and the controversy "...published on 21 March 2018, following the publication of a paper by Dr Carolyn Wilshire of the University of Wellington, New Zealand, which found that the findings of the Principal Investigators of the PACE trial were ‘not robust’ and showed ‘no long-term benefits’...

...includes numerous inaccuracies and distortions; it denigrates patients and some doctors; it fails to reflect the numerous peer reviewed papers, published since the release of some of the raw data from the trial following legal action, which demonstrate serious defects in the PACE trial, and it fails to take into account the extensive research from the USA published since 2014. This will all have been available to you....

...The mainstream medical community in the USA concluded that the “campaigners” have actually been correct about the nature of the condition, stating that “ME/CFS is a serious, chronic, complex systemic disease” (Academy of Medicine), that it is not a primary psychological disease in aetiology” (National Institutes of Health). They state that guidance for managing ME/CFS should include a “declaration that the disease is not the result of fear-based avoidance of activity”, and a clear indication that the disease is not a psychiatric or somatoform disorder” (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee of the Department of Health and Human Services)."

 

[alkt]

a great letter I hope it actually does some good. but over the years the smc has only come across as a right wing disability denier to fit in with the far rights intention of dismantling the so called safety net of the dwp. after all if you can deny a whole raft of diseases with fatigue as a comorbid symptom that is a lot of money saved .