I have not had a chance to examine the paper much or view the conference, but I get a good impression from other people's comments so far. It confirms some of my pre-release suspicious about it all; the findings were null but there was emphasis on the seriousness of ME/CFS and other biomedical projects underway.
ME is probably a mental illness after all - but that does not mean that it is not real
18 September 2012 7:27 PM
Michael Hanlon's Science blog
http://hanlonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2...t-that-does-not-mean-that-it-is-not-real.html
I agree that Michael Hanlon's Science blog is the worst coverage yet (AFAIK), but it was only a matter of time. I even saved a copy for future reference, and just in case it changes ...
The 1st paragraph is inflammatory. The alluded connection between the 2nd and 3rd paragraph does not make sense. The rest of the article gives an inflated sense of how common the "abuse" is, although at the end suggests it may only be a handful of people. He seems to conflate the XMRV/pMLV hypothesis with a general "virus hypothesis", and seems to misrepresent or water-down Shepherd's position on ME/CFS: "
Shepherd has been vocal in his support for the view that ME may not be a purely psychiatric condition."
Out comes the [fear of the stigma surrounding mental illness] explanation again, and portrayal of the PACE/CBT/GET critics as negative campaigners and worse than anti-vaccinators. Then, "
Something about this disease seems to cause a suspension of reason." Yes, apparently for the writers of articles and blogs too! "
There is a deep mystery here and one is forced to suspect that there is more to all this than meets the eye." Oh the irony! Things are not always as they appear, keep digging and you soon fall down the rabbit hole with the rest of us.
"
Perhaps now the final nail in the coffin of the virus theory appears to have been driven home, we will find out once and for all the true story behind the ME fanatics." All the claims in various articles about "the virus theory has been debunked once and for all" will look rather stupid if Lipkin's pathogen study finds something significant.
I do not expect reporters to understand the science and politics of ME/CFS straight away, I did not either at first, but I expect curiosity for different sides of the argument and the avoidance of inaccurate conflation. Keep in mind that Daily Mail excels as a gossip magazine and has rarely shown much understanding or insight about ME/CFS.