Gerwyn,
I will go through this just one more time and then I will walk away.
Firstly, I do hope someone will correct the spelling of Prof Wessely's name in the subject line of this thread. This is important for Google searches.
The fact that Wessely was an adviser to PRISMA Health in 2001
is not in dispute.
This was covered by Martin Walker in his book
Skewed for which I possess a copy.
The pages from PRISMA Health website that had listed SW as a member of the Supervisory Board in 2001 are no longer accessible online or on the Way Back Machine, but I have a copy of the text that a trusted source close to Hooper/Williams held on file.
The text from the 2001 PRISMA Health web page reads:
Supervisory Board
[...]
"Prof. Dr. Simon Wessely, British, is regarded as a world leading expert
in the field of medically unexplained illnesses. He has been publishing
extensively on chronic fatigue and is leading, among other things, the
Chronic Fatigue Unit at the King’s College in London."
I have also provided you with an affiliations disclosure from a journal paper from September 2001:
http://128.121.104.17/cfs-inform/Reviewcfs/editorial.wessely01.txt
Source: Journal of the American Medical Association
Vol. 286, #11
Date: September 19, 2001
[...]
"Author/Article Information
Author Affiliation: Department of Psychological Medicine, Guy's King and St
Thomas's School of Medicine and Institute of Psychiatry, London, England.
Corresponding Author and Reprints: Simon Wessely, MD, Department of
Psychological Medicine, Guy's King and St Thomas' School of Medicine, 103
Denmark Hill, London, England SE5 8AF (e-mail: sphascw@iop.bpmf.ac.uk).
Financial Disclosure: Dr Wessely serves as an advisor for treatment programs
and research opportunities for PRISMA, a private company that arranges
rehabilitation services. Dr Wessely receives no payment for this position, is
not a shareholder, and has no financial interest in the company."
So I have provided
two reference sources confirming that SW was, in 2001, on the Supervisory Board of PRISMA Health and an upaid adviser to PRISMA Health.
A fact which I have never disputed and which I am not disputing now.
In fact, earlier this year, I provided this material to a journalist in order to provide evidence that SW had been an adviser to PRISMA Health in 2001.
So that is not an issue.
The issue is this:
You had stated that:
"Professor Wessely is an adviser to PRISMA Health..."
and I asked you for supportive evidence that SW had remained an adviser to PRISMA Health beyond 2001/2 (since it has been understood for some years, that he had ceased that association with the company).
The reference you provided me with was an extract from the Hooper/Williams NICE 2007 submission to the NICE inquiry.
Rather than provide, in 2007, a contemporary reference to support his claim that SW was at that point
still an adviser to PRISMA Health and a member of a Board of PRISMA Health Prof Hooper provides only a URL to his own document "What is ME? What is CFS?" which he and Williams and Marshall published in 2001.
I have a hard copy of that document and I have an electronic copy on file.
So in his submission to NICE in 2007, Prof Hooper provides in support of his statement -
no new evidence that confirms that in 2007 SW remained an adviser to PRISMA Health.
Instead he relies on his 2001 document.
I have therefore told you that that
is not evidence that SW continued beyond 2001 as an adviser to PRISMA Health.
You then start talking about the difference between unpaid advisory roles and employment and contracts. So now you're strawmanning, because I have not claimed that SW held paid employment with or a contract to provide services to, PRISMA Health.
All I have asked for is that you provide a source of evidence for your statement that:
"Professor Wessely is an adviser to PRISMA Health..."
That is, evidence that SW remained an adviser beyond 2001 and is currently an adviser.
A reference to a 2007 document which contained no evidence but references a 2001 document by the same author is not evidence.
It is irrelevant who authored that submission.
It is also irrelevant that it "was not contested".
The fact is, that the 2007 document cannot be cited as a source of evidence as it provides no contemporary reference (the reference being a publication in 2001 by the same author).
In November last year, PR member "Holmsey" posted in a PR thread around his exchanges with SW, you can access that thread here:
http://www.forums.aboutmecfs.org/sh...-Wessely-on-XMRV&p=17218&viewfull=1#post17218
This is the text of that post (Post # 157)
November 26th, 2009 08:18 AM #157
Originally Posted by Holmsey
Great, thanks for this.
Verifiable as to it's veracity, deviod of opinion or emotional content. SW has already implied in mails to me that he beleive's others such as WPI are motivated by monetary gain, specifically in the supply of potentially unnecessary and expensive testing for XMRV. If this pans out then I've caught him in the act of missleading, no if's or but's and that's what I've been looking for.
Ok, another fast turnaroud to SW, I questioned him directly on the specific claim, and as he's given me written permission to post anything he says already, so here's the mail.
Any truth in any of it?
The reply was -
.
So people lets go to work, substanciate the original claim with proofs.
[Post ends]
So, when people state (as they regularly do on this forum) that SW "is an adviser to PRISMA Health" or that SW "works for UNUM", I think I am justified in asking for the same level of evidence that a journalist would require in order to support the assertion that SW remained an adviser to PRISMA Health beyond 2001/2 and that he continues to be an adviser, today.
Anything less isn't "safe".
I maintain several websites and I publish under my own name - as such, I have to take considerable care that I can back up whatever I write with reference sources - contemporary reference sources - not a document quoting an earlier document published in 2001.
If you are comfortable with anything less then that is your prerogative.
Should anyone hold documentary evidence that beyond 2001/2002 SW remained an adviser to PRISMA Health and remains an adviser to this day, then I shall be happy to review it.
Suzy