Judy Mikovits

An addition to my previous post...

One thing that does worry me about the internet getting censored in respect of medical information is that it makes it harder for anyone and everyone to put forward a new idea.

It's probably too late for big pharma to get rid of dissenting voices about the diet-heart hypothesis and the "cholesterol will kill you" idea. But if the information had come out ten years later they would probably be screaming for that to be removed from the internet too.

Science should not be about achieving consensus and defending it tooth and claw from anyone dissenting. That is just a way to make sure that science stagnates.
 
It's a hard call to make on what level of censorship is optimal, on the one hand anti-vaxers, COVID deniers, and bleach promoters pose serious harm and potential to cause many deaths, on the other hand plenty of psych's would like this site shut down for what they believe to be harmful misinformation.
 
This is why transparency and truly independent replication should be a standard of science. We shouldn't have to evaluate claims based on who said them but on the evidence and how sound it is.

We need to change the culture of how we talk about claims rather than putting our belief in one or another claim.
 
If You Found That ‘Plandemic’ Video Convincing, Read This Too

The video is “part one” of an upcoming movie called Plandemic, and consists of a single interview between the filmmaker and virologist Judy Mikovits. She says that the COVID-19 pandemic was somehow created in a lab or is being allowed to spread on purpose (her story shifts a bit). There are a few subtle truths here, but nearly all of the actionable advice—whether to wear a mask or accept a vaccine, for example—is dangerously unsupported. If you’re having trouble figuring out whether to trust this video, or what information in it is true and what is false, we’ll break it down for you.
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https://vitals.lifehacker.com/if-you-found-that-plandemic-video-convincing-read-th-1843339002

The harm she's done to us is not over. I hope MECFS gets refered to as little as possible in this conspiracy nonsense.
 
Ars Technica has covered the story.

Fired scientist back to peddling anti-vaxx COVID-19 conspiracy theories
YouTube, Facebook crack down on two viral videos for spreading medical misinformation.
https://arstechnica.com/science/202...dling-anti-vaxx-covid-19-conspiracy-theories/
Ars Technica said:
Back in 2011, we covered the strange story of biochemist Judy Mikovits, who co-authored a controversial (and subsequently retracted) paper in the journal Science and eventually lost her prestigious position with a research institution. Now Mikovits is back in the news, having spent the ensuing years reinventing herself as a staunch anti-vaccine crusader.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given her a new conspiracy to tout, this time targeting Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH, who has become a prominent public spokesperson during the outbreak. Two interviews in particular have been spreading rapidly on social media, prompting YouTube and Facebook to remove both video clips for spreading medical misinformation during a global pandemic—a violation of their current policies
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Ars Technica said:
Nonetheless, this prompted Mikovits to use the same tools to look for XMRV in samples from patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)—a disorder some had claimed was purely psychosomatic.

In 2009, Mikovits co-authored the now-retracted Science paper, reporting evidence of the XMRV retrovirus in samples from patients suffering from CFS, suggesting it might cause the condition. It was retracted after other laboratories failed to replicate the results, and subsequent tests revealed the original results to be the result of sample contamination.
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Ars Technica said:
This transformed Mikovits into a martyr for the cause in the eyes of many CFS sufferers, frustrated at having their disorder repeatedly dismissed and eager to latch onto a possible concrete biological cause. She became their champion, and their efforts to defend her sometimes turned dark. The most aggressive actions included bombarding researchers with freedom of information requests, lodging complaints with university ethics committees, and falsely accusing individual scientists of being paid by drug and insurance companies. Occasionally, there were even death threats. As Ars' John Timmer observed nine years ago:

It's no surprise that patients who frequently had their disorder treated with dismissiveness would respond positively to indications that it had a concrete, biological cause. But demonizing scientists who don't support something that appeals to you is never going to end well, especially when all indications are that the scientists are being careful and thorough. Unfortunately, we're now seeing more of this sort of behavior in areas as diverse as climate change, vaccine safety, and animal research.​
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I will say this... I think ME/CFS research and advocacy (in the US, at least) would be in a much different place today were it not for the XMRV debacle - a place a lot more like 2009 than 2020.

To quote John F. Kennedy:
“The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis. ' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger--but recognize the opportunity.”
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Merged thread

A rather damning article from Science Magazine, which is a publication of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science). The article does an excellent job of destroying any credibility that MIkovits may have left. It describes some really wild conspiracy theories by Mikovits on a variety of topics, and proceeds to debunk them one by one.

Fact-checking Judy Mikovits, the controversial virologist attacking Anthony Fauci in a viral conspiracy video | Science | AAAS

Edit: An article covering similar ground has also been published in the Washington Post.
 
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zzz said:
Merged thread

A rather damning article from Science Magazine, which is a publication of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science). The article does an excellent job of destroying any credibility that MIkovits may have left. It describes some really wild conspiracy theories by Mikovits on a variety of topics, and proceeds to debunk them one by one.

Fact-checking Judy Mikovits, the controversial virologist attacking Anthony Fauci in a viral conspiracy video | Science | AAAS

Edit: An article covering similar ground has also been published in the Washington Post.
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Man, that is bat sh*t crazy.
 
In some way, seeing all the chaos, confusion, scandals and weird ideas about the coronavirus makes me feel a little better because for once it's not happening in the field of ME/CFS.

It shows I think that this is typical for situations where there is a lot of uncertainty.
 
strategist said:
In some way, seeing all the chaos, confusion, scandals and weird ideas about the coronavirus makes me feel a little better because for once it's not happening in the field of ME/CFS.

It shows I think that this is typical for situations where there is a lot of uncertainty.
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Might one dream that this Covid business might provide a Wizard of Oz moment that makes people realise we live in a world where fashion is authority and everyone has become Jeremy from Yellow Submarine.
 
As more details come out, this is clearly 100% political, basically a massive propaganda operation.

Can't really speak to the details but this is all for the QAnon crowd. It will get pretty ugly, but at least the conversation will be mostly on the weird politics and are less likely to splash us too much.
 
Mikovits must be getting some very effective and thus not inexpensive help to boost her social media presence and produce a professional documentary. She has 126000 followers on Twitter despite joining in April of this year, no way this is legitimate.
 
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