I don't need to read it again, it's clear from even the very first reading that she is trying to stir up fear to further her research agenda. She as much as admitted that when she said presenting at the autism conference was her "last resort" (desperation), and that, in her words, "unless we do something now this could be the worst epidemic in U.S. history. Our continent will be like HIV Africa only worse!"
"Unless we do something NOW." Complete with exclamation points. The implication is that we don't have an epidemic now, but that if we don't ACT NOW! we might have one. If that's not designed to stir up fear, I don't know what is.
The public absolutely noticed the H1N1 scare. It was front and center on the news like every night for weeks, there were shortages of vaccines causing all kinds of grief, and the CDC/WHO and/or others were talking about a massive pandemic. That didn't really pan out, either, and so the public attention drifted to other things. And that's a flu virus that by all accounts is easily communicable, and that actually killed a number of people. XMRV is a completely different agent with a completely different profile.
I guess I'm going to be the odd man out here again, as I agree with much of what
Mr. Kite says, and echo
Serenity's concerns, but also agree with some of the other comments. Lots of good points made.
I respect Dr. Mikovits as much as anyone here, but I think that perhaps sometimes her passion sometimes gets a little overheated at times. I'm glad she's passionate about CFS/ME, but I think it might sometimes backfire if she doesn't choose her words more carefully. I hope it doesn't...but it could.
Alex had a point where he said that (paraphrasing) XMRV is hard to catch, not like the flu, so comparing it to the overblown media coverage of the H1N1 flu of last year (that was potentially supposed to kill possibly millions) doesn't really ring true for me as well. If it could be called an 'epidemic', it's definitely not in that same boat, especially regarding the public's perception.
Comparing it to the HIV epidemic also doesn't seem right to me, for the reasons Mr. Kite has mentioned, but also because of comments that I believe came from the WPI and others (and also perhaps Gerwyn?) that XMRV replicates very slowly and in different tissues/cells than HIV.
I agree with
Esther when she said that while perhaps some of Mikovits quotes were rearranged, nevertheless, "it was a bad idea to provide quotes like those which could be taken out of context." Personally, I think it didn't help her or the WPI, to send those emails.
Natassa: "If 4-6% of the general population is already infected, how will anyone know that they are not (and be a bully) before they get tested... Also that high percentage of infected population makes it clear that everyone CAN get infected and that it is in everyone's interest that a vaccine and treatments are found asap."
Good points, but this to me again suggests that it may not be the 'puppet master', that perhaps genetics, or other factors/triggers (probably multiple) may be involved. But it also means that every single person, healthy or not, would need to be tested for XMRV, before giving blood. That won't happen until there's solid proof that it causes disease in the vast majority of those with XRMV.
Dysatonomia: "CFS affects at least 10x the amount of people compared to the HIV epidemic."
You're a lot smarter than me, but I'm curious where you obtained this statistic (for reference).
"If one is aware of the huge amount of research into CFS (which I am), It's illogical not to link a newly discovered human exogenous retrovirus, to a disease where 98% of patients test positive with CFS, and where other healthy people around the globe also test positive in 25x less numbers..."
It was my understanding that roughly
10x more healthy people in the US (extrapolating the 3.7% stat in the Science study) tested positive (10-12 million healthy folks in the US population compared to 1-2 million estimated ME/CFS patients).
And finally, I don't understand your final statement:
"No one is coming to our rescue. Now I know why."
Aren't there dozens of studies going on now around the world? Or at least a dozen?
And lastly, what about the DeFreitas retrovirus? If that was indeed such an
important finding as conveyed by Hillary Johnson for decades, etc., and we know that the WPI says XMRV is not the same retrovirus,
why isn't ANYONE, including the WPI, following up on Elaine's work and trying to replicate her findings? For all we know it could be just as important as XMRV...
ETA Forbin's comment: "The moral of the story seem to be “Take on your critics. Don’t hide your light under a bushel. If you don't show that you believe in yourself, why should anyone else believe in you?”
Good point.