TRIAL BY ERROR: The Troubling Case of the PACE Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study

[TiredSam]

Abuse! Abuse!

Ok, I'll 'fess up to that one, but the rest wasn't me.
I usually spend two minutes writing a post, and then half an hour tidying it up, mainly taking out all the swearwords. That one must have slipped through the net, terribly sorry.

 

[adreno]

Ok, I'll 'fess up to that one, but the rest wasn't me.
I usually spend two minutes writing a post, and then half an hour tidying it up, mainly taking out all the swearwords. That one must have slipped through the net, terribly sorry.

I was joking. But seriously, are they perhaps referring to PR, where they have been called idiots, morons and arseholes?

 

[Denise]

David Tuller's response to PACE Trial investigators:

http://www.virology.ws/2015/10/30/david-tuller-responds-to-the-pace-investigators/


(For convenience the link to the PACE authors response to Tuller

http://www.virology.ws/2015/10/30/pace-trial-investigators-respond-to-david-tuller/

 

[Chrisb]

One might expect the psychiatrists who deal with psychiatric cases to have experienced worse language in a career.

 

[Sean]

Arseholes.

You horrible rude person!

 

[Snow Leopard]

"reputational damage"

If you don't design a trial properly to avoid bias and fail to properly report the data you did gather, then yes, you are going to get the reputation of being a sloppy scientist.

 

[Valentijn]

http://www.virology.ws/2015/10/30/david-tuller-responds-to-the-pace-investigators/

Has anyone seen any instances of actual abuse on Twitter or has it just been vigorous critique?

I haven't seen any abuse, but I haven't been looking at the accounts of the researchers. At most there's been mild rudeness, which is pretty tame for Twitter.

 

[Valentijn]

I was joking. But seriously, are they perhaps referring to PR, where they have been called idiots, morons and arseholes?

You forgot "frauds"

 

[Denise]

David Tuller's response to the PACE team's response...

http://www.virology.ws/2015/10/30/david-tuller-responds-to-the-pace-investigators/

Oops! I didn't see this. Sorry (I posted this link and http://www.virology.ws/2015/10/30/david-tuller-responds-to-the-pace-investigators/ together.)

 

[Kyla]

Just wanted to say I hope this "bullying" narrative won't deter anyone from (politely) advocating on social media. its been mighty quiet on Twitter today.

Bullying and harassment are obviously not ever okay. even when directed at people who are themselves bullies.

BUT...attacking the character of your detractors is also not acceptable, and is a common strategy in terms of shutting up your opponents.

 

[Sidereal]

Just wanted to say I hope this "bullying" narrative won't deter anyone from (politely) advocating on social media. its been mighty quiet on Twitter today.

I think it might be that some of us have PEM today from the very busy day yesterday with the Coyne blogpost and NIH announcement. I can barely function today after all that.

 

[worldbackwards]

Also, in the first section of the story, I wrote that Dr. Chalder and Dr. Sharpe did not return e-mails I sent them last December, seeking interviews. However, during a recent review of e-mails from last December, I found a return e-mail from Dr. Sharpe that I had forgotten about. In the e-mail, Dr. Sharpe declined my request for an interview.

I apologize to Dr. Sharpe for suggesting he hadn’t responded to my e-mail last December.

Quality trolling.

 

[leela]

One thing I've noticed about habitual liars is that they cling to the delusion that no one can tell they are lying.
If caught out, they pile on more lies, driven by that same delusion that their web of deceit is not completely transparent to rational people.
This problem is only compounded when the Lying Liars are in a group, mutually reinforcing their Story, and consider themselves to be more clever
than the people they are lying to.

By this point the need to save face is so great they can never ever admit to wrongdoing because the giant pot of Lie Stew they are sloshing around in is too big.

 

[Sidereal]

Man, the PACE investigators' reply to Tuller is totally devoid of content. It's actually a skill to be able to write so many words and yet say nothing. I wonder if lawyers helped them draft this.

 

[Sean]

Quality trolling.

Master class.

 

[user9876]

Man, the PACE investigators' reply to Tuller is totally devoid of content. It's actually a skill to be able to write so many words and yet say nothing. I wonder if lawyers helped them draft this.

It would surprise me it doesn't read like it comes from lawyers or the press office both groups would probably be quite shocked by their lack of defense. I would have thought if QMULs lawyers looked into the issues they would be giving the university different advise.

 

[daisybell]

I think it might be that some of us have PEM today from the very busy day yesterday with the Coyne blogpost and NIH announcement. I can barely function today after all that.

You should have managed your activity better or at least graded the exercise .....

 

[Riley]

Seriously, what would constitute "abuse" on social media in this context? I can only think of explicit threats, and I doubt those have occurred.

 

[Hutan]

David Tuller's response and the great comments following on the blog and here were a joy to read this morning. Thanks to all involved.

 

[A.B.]

Seriously, what would constitute "abuse" on social media in this context? I can only think of explicit threats, and I doubt those have occurred.

I think it was just an attempt to intimidate Tuller by suggesting that his article generated abuse.

They are very good at suggesting things without outright claiming or saying them.