Of course I agree with critically examine and not blindly follow but is that something achievable by people who see themselves as fighting for their lives ? At the very least such an attitude suggest a likely preference for ready answers rather than the posing of fundamental questions. To suggest that XMRV wasnt latched onto with undue expectations is denying what has to be obvious to anyone who has read the M.E/CFS forums in the last two years. That wanting XMRV to pan out is understandable, but the group attitude has been unhealthy and unrealistic and has not involved a general critical appraisal of all the available science. My suggestion is that now is the time to learn from the XMRV saga, and for those involved in the forums to start a more considered approach to science because the odds are against XMRV being a single answer, and M.E/CFS affected people are going to need positive engagement with a broad range of medical science for many years to come.
Of course another ten, twenty, thirty years without effective treatment would be really crap and at that range some of us will never enjoy the benefits of research, but given that there may well be a genetic element to M.E/CFS, we should IMO not focus just on our individual 'fights to survive' but on what the long term propects are for our, children, grand children, nephews, nieces etc. Saving the world from an XMRV plague had a great ring to it, but even if what we are stuck with is plain boring old M.E that's been around for forever, we can at least 'achieve' a quiet personal herosim by being part of the reasoned deconstruction of the elements of a confusing illness.
IVI