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I'm out of this discussion. If you had even volunteered in a research lab that was sending people to conferences you would know how rediculous this all is.
I'm done.
I was part of a research lab that went to conferences. I've even reviewed conference papers. I'm intimately aware of the intense politics that goes on in academia. This kind of thing is not "rediculous[sic]" but in fact very much the norm. Look at the history of the discovery of HIV and the bitter incriminations regarding who should be credited with that discovery. There are high stakes here.
Please help to lobby the NIH to allow Dr Mikovits to speak at the First International XMRV Conference in September. She is currently excluded from the agenda. This is a bizarre turn of events, especially given that she was the first scientist to isolate XMRV in blood. Let Judy speak !! This link has a template letter and email addresses to send it to.I'm wondering if this is just the list of speakers they've begun to get lined up, not the whole final list. If it is a beginning, it seems like a good start--what is the story?
We all know Mikovits is on the scientific committee, but this is nothing to do with her being, cough cough, prevented from giving the presentation.
Read between the words
Watch out. I hear the rest of the panel is being run by aliens from the planet Pfizer and that they are going to come in the night to do CBT on us with fake blood panels run by their zethlopod masters.
That would be untrue
So. .... did it dawn on any of you that she might have been on the comittee specifically to nominate someone from her own paper to do the keynote address?????
You can't argue the research is being pushed aside because another researcher on the exact same project is presenting. That is a break in logic.
What proof do you have of any of this? The fact that she isn't speaking? have you ever actually been in a research institution? when people collaborate on papers it is VERY common for only one researcher to go to a conference... usually the rest stay behind in the labs TO CONTINUE THE WORK.
WAKE UP. This is making everybody look bad.
I'll ask again.. have any of you talked with her? do you know if she has time to do the conference now? do you really think all of this hinges on a conference? the conferences are designed to get more researchers involved.... that doesn't mean they stop working to run around and socialize. you know the WPI does not have endless funds.... how much of a travel budget have they given her???
Ruscetti's lab has more money, they might have let him do it for budget restraints. you think they would publicize that?
picking shots at the other researchers to idolize the ones you like isn't going to get any of us anywhere. I get that you want her work recognized. but understand that not speaking at a conference is not where you need to be focused.
In the labs and with the people i have known that have been published... its not like a conference is a vacation the whole lab gets to go on. Budgeting for conferences can be very difficult for smaller research institutions, some universities tack on bonuses for certain levels of tenure, certain health institutions provide monies for certain conferences... if ruscetti is speaking they are not blocking the research and they are going to think you are spinning your wheels for nothing.
besides the fact that they are probably aware of the way she is perceived right now. by asking somebody else from the labs that worked on it, they are giving the issues a better chance of hitting with the audience. there isn't the layer of controversy over him that might be over wpi .... you have to let these things play out. this isn't American idol academic research edition. its not about the conference speakers being celebrities. its about competent people educating their peers. ruscetti is more than qualified.
i mean frankly sometimes research groups will pair because one has more travel money etc and will have additional funds to field that sort of thing... there are all sorts of considerations and reducing it down to a cfs pr issue is just going to frustrate people on the other side of the decision making process who will be completely baffled as to why we are upset that one of the senior researchers on the ground breaking paper isn't good enough to present.
not to mention that its being held right on his doorstep by his people.... ?!?!
National Institutes of Health
Lister Hill Center Auditorium
first floor of Building 38A
10 Center Dr
Bethesda, MD 20814
United States
Organizing Secretariat
Virology Education
Bilstraat 106
35872 BJ Utrecht
I'm sorry but can someone give me an update... what were mikovitz words about this? they are already presenting somebody from the same paper that was involved in the research aren't they? if ruscetti is at the talk you really don't need to email or write letters about this. i'm surprised you are upset.
Kati:
I haven't got permission to copy Judy's words. She has shared this with many people. Ruscetti will be excellent to present on CFS but the honors ought to go to judy as the main investigator. Then there is the question of what the committee decided Switer from the CDC who found NO XMRV despite given positive controls by WPI in September 2009 and make no mention of that. Switzer is presenting on assay development. Is he really the best person here that they could give the honors to? Someone that found no XMRV and actually told the NIH to put their positive study on hold?
You really don't want to give off the impression that you are meddling in the way these things are done... they obviously asked somebody from the original paper to be there your desire to have her present is somewhat out of touch and i frankly think your gestures are going to be misinterpreted.
Kati
Don't want to start a war but your interpretation is totally wrong. Go do nothing and wait an extra 15 years for the science alone to figure out that Switzer is doing bad science... IIn fact it might be better you do that
telling the committee that one of the few people to have published descent research on this condition that he is not an expert is shooting yourselves in the foot. he is an expert.
Really @ shooting myself in the foot. Ruscetti is one of the good person, granted. If you asked him, he'd say that Judy is best placed to talk about CFS. But Jjudy has been pushed aside. This is all political.
You are the one that needs to wake up. When researchers do research together they often field conferences. If all you are going on is a bulletin that she was pushed out of the conference then you are really just spinning your wheels about nothing. Did you stop to ask yourself that with all these studies she is planning on autism and xmrv and cfs and pc and all these other cohorts that maybe she would be too busy to speak and additionally that they might let one of the researchers.. perhaps who has a arger travel budget... field one of the first conferences ?