You can view the page at http://www.forums.aboutmecfs.org/content.php?89-Muddy-Waters-XMRV-and-CFS
Welcome to Phoenix Rising!
Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.
To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.
Kurt has brought forward another more disturbing possibility; that the validation study results thus far are correct and that XMRV is not found in CFS…but something else is. In this scenario XMRV shows up in those original uncultured samples and then disappears in later uncultured samples and then appears to reappear in cultured samples because the culture process itself is bringing something else out patient's blood that looks very much like XMRV. This is a kind of ‘ inadvertent but possibly very lucky’ scenario in which WPI researchers do possibly find an important factor in ME/CFS - just not the one they were looking for. It’s all speculation at this point; with a new set of studies reportedly about to be reported on, XMRV is at a fork right now; the path it ends up traveling down is still encouraging wreathed in the fogs of the future.
Hi Cort
As always you have put together another great piece of journalism. Each article dovetailing nicely with the last. There is a but here. I bet you could sense it coming? It's the following paragraph I found out of kilter with the all the others.
I have followed Gerwyn and Kurt (and others in the HERV thread), and, whilst I admit I am more than a little biased in favour of XMRV being the cause of CFS/ME (Judy M speculates, and is clear that she is doing so, that she thinks most people with CFS/ME will have the bug) I did not find anything compelling in the pro-HERV argument. From what I can discern, using my less than scientific take on matters, this is highly speculative. It might be best to be a little more clear about this in the article, when you say, 'Kurt has brought forward another more disturbing possibility...'
I understand you wish to achieve balance, but on that basis any number of speculative theories could have made it into the article. If the pro-HERV theory is indeed gaining any credibilty, then it is incumbent upon you to cite a couple of well regarded sources (no offence to Kurt) to back this up.