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.... about the 20 samples that WPI sent for testing to the CDC. WPI found all 20 to be positive; CDC found all 20 to be negative.
CFS Central
http://www.cfscentral.com
CFS Central
http://www.cfscentral.com
It's there word against WPIs.
Are the CDC prepared to send the 20 samples to the FDA/NIH to test? So they can confirm all 20 are negative?
Thank you again for reaching out to the CDC regarding your questions about XMRV & CFS
They don't have to. WPI took the precaution of splitting those samples and sending them to other laboratories. Can we guess which laboratories?...Are the CDC prepared to send the 20 samples to the FDA/NIH to test? So they can confirm all 20 are negative?
They don't have to. WPI took the precaution of splitting those samples and sending them to other laboratories. Can we guess which laboratories?
That was where one set of samples went, and Singh has not revealed anything about her results, except by planning a much larger study. I was thinking about a different laboratory which has results in press.... I thought I saw somewhere that it was Ila Singh's group that also tested the samples and found the majority positive, presumably by PCR. I wonder if Singh's group has done antibody testing on these samples?
that up coming conference is going to be way interesting.. just imagine.. the CDC saying it was sent all false positive samples.. against those who say they werent false.
umm or maybe the CDC has made it up and are actually lying that they tested them, thinking it would be a better way out of the mess??? as after all it would look even worst for them if they said they DIDNT bother to test the samples at all!!! I think saying one did test them and wasnt able to find it, so believed those samples were contamination is the better choice of the two options.
If you were dishonest.. what would you say?
Is the CDC in damage control and telling the best fibs it can to try to escape the mess??? and to look like it really tried. I personally dont trust anything which the CDC says.
This statement is the most logical thing if one is dishonest, to say in this situation.
I agree. Further, the CDC did not mention the 20 negative samples in their study. If they did test them why would they not have said so, even if to twist the knife a little? Either they themselves are aware of how bizarre the 20 negatives look, or they did not really test the samples.
If the CDC group got positives from PCR testing of those samples, and failed to report this, they have an even bigger controversy on their hands. The least outrageous implication is that they also got 0/20 positives from PCR.Yes Andrew they were.
The Slide heading was "Absence of XMRV Antibodies in Additional Populations Tested at CDC".
Among other things it listed it said, "0/20 'positive' plasmas from WPI"
That still leaves no PCR result from the CDC for this group. If they got a negative PCR I wonder why they haven't said so?
But at this point maybe the antibody tests might be more important than PCR, as positive results would be evidence that contamination is not present. Given that the reports of the Alter study raised the prospect that MuLV other than XMRV are involved then, if true, this would place a larger onus on positive studies to show that there is no contamination as mice can carry MuLV, unlike XMRV. I am waiting to see what the Alter study has in terms of antibody testing as that might turn out to be pretty important for us.
I'm too foggy to start writing letters to places right now. But here is a basic point that the CDC response sidesteps.
Checking ones assays against samples found positive by others is a scientific method for double-checking the validity of ones tests. It is not outside the realm of routine publication to include information about validation steps, even if the results call for more testing. By omitting information about these results, they deprive other scientists potentially useful information. They deprive other scientists the opportunity to decide whether the inconsistencies the CDC found need further consideration.
The Centers for Disease Control have a professional and moral obligation to assist in the control of disease. But their actions show only half-hearted attempt to do this. Some might even say this is lying by omission. But either way, they have fallen short of their charter to promote the control of disease. Their lack of full disclosure interferes with other scientists having as much information as possible from which to work. And in making excuses for doing this, the CDC has taken the lower moral ground.