I agree with
@Kati. (Edit--I'm slow--and
@viggster,
@Sasha, and others.) My reaction was "Ah, dear. The way he is addressing some of these questions is going to be offputtng to some folks. But his scientific approach is good." As an academic, I am painfully aware that academics are not always politic--they are focused on their research and not necessarily used to a lot of politics. And they can be a little thin-skinned. That's not to excuse it--but just to say that scientists are very human.
As a matter of substance, I think his answer about bias was right on (though I very much take
@Valentijn 's point). As a researcher, my goal is always to try to eliminate bias (so far as possible) through methodology. It's the only way--we can't eliminate human cognitive and other biases, so our best hope is to get the right design and methods.
I agree that Dr. Nath seemed a bit impatient with all the emails and suggestions, and that's too bad. I also wish he had not expressed the fact that everyone is doing this as an extra on top of their "day jobs" in the manner he did--but it's so hard for those who are not sick to know how that sounds to people whose lives are in suspension or worse. And again, substantively, it's useful to know that the researchers are all putting in some time on top of their other studies.*
It's clear (and he said) that ME/CFS is not his passion--his passion is immunology, and he is hoping to lend that expertise. Maybe he'll find that he becomes passionate about it--either way, I think we should welcome him and express gratitude for committing to this study.
Most importantly, the science is sounding good, and I am hopeful!
-Vasha (and sorry! I haven't been around--crashes galore and other stuff--but I have been reading off and on and as ever am so grateful for this community and its support)
*Obviously, we need to get to a place where there are _dedicated_ researchers and resources, and Dr. Nath has given us information that will help us argue to give researchers more resources so that they are not having to do this on top of their other work.