"He was defended by George Lewith, professor of primary care at Southampton University, who was not involved in the original research. He said the field was in danger of becoming politicised. “I’ve worked in the area for ten years, and I’ve been appalled by what has happened. There’s a small group of people with fixed and opposing views, and they want to torture the data until it proves what they believe. I think there’s a great danger people will stop doing research because it’s so confrontational.”
Maybe someone should pass on to my old friend George that his old friend Jo thinks he is making a fool of himself. The only people with fixed views who tortured the data to prove what they believe were the PACE authors. If George does not understand the basic incompetence of the PACE trial design he has no business being a professor and should go back to being a first year student. The truth is that at last the PACE trial is being unpoliticised. It is now an issue of science and it is seen to be very bad science. If people who do bad science are discouraged by confrontation we should all give three cheers. Every single scientist from another discipline I have met who has encountered the PACE story agrees that the trial is hopelessly flawed. It is only the ME/CFS physicians who are frightened by not having something to recommend who support it.