Michael Sharpe on Radio 4 Today / Tom Feilden BBC (18th march 2019)

Jonathan Edwards said:
I fear Wednesday might be the Guardian!

I was interested to see Frances Ryan tweeting about all this (she writes for Grauniad and I think has muscular dystrophy). But I could not find an email to contact her. The rest of the Grauniad camp have been disastrous.
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...
Frances Ryan (Journalist) | Wiki & Bio | Everipedia

https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/frances-ryan-journalist/
Frances Ryan is a journalist and political commentator based in the United Kingdom. She writes extensively on inequality, disability, and social mobility for The Guardian as both an opinion and feature writer, as well as other publications such as the New Statesman, The ...
Email‎: ‎frances.ryan.freelance@guardian.co.uk
 
Suffolkres said:
...
Frances Ryan (Journalist) | Wiki & Bio | Everipedia

https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/frances-ryan-journalist/
Frances Ryan is a journalist and political commentator based in the United Kingdom. She writes extensively on inequality, disability, and social mobility for The Guardian as both an opinion and feature writer, as well as other publications such as the New Statesman, The ...
Email‎: ‎frances.ryan.freelance@guardian.co.uk
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Thanks. I sent a message.
 
Dx Revision Watch said:
And what a co-incidence the timing is!

Kate Kelland for Reuters (March 13).
The Odious Lidl in The Sunday Times (March 16).
Sharpe on BBC Radio 4, this morning.
Dr Porter in tomorrow's Times.

Any bets on which paper on Wednesday?


Edited to add:

I missed out the Mail (March 15):
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/...e-researcher-QUITS-online-trolls-hostile.html
Top Oxford researcher trying to bust the mystery of chronic fatigue syndrome says he QUIT and turned his focus to new research because trolls are 'too hostile'

and Times (March 16):
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trolls-force-oxford-expert-to-stop-research-into-me-ttnb8gznv
Trolls force Oxford expert to stop research into ME
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And Sharpe witters on about campaigners!
 
MS –The way that science works is, as you know, people do studies, those studies are peer
reviewed, and then we see whether those studies are replicated. The studies of this treatment
have been replicated maybe a dozen times in trials. These journals – journals like Health
Psychology – are at liberty to publish campaigns against the treatment – because that’s
effectively what it was – but it’s very important that science takes its course with peer review
and replication, and we don’t have science bent by campaigning.
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I find these 'the way that science works is...' arguments interesting. Who gets to decide how 'science' works? Is anyone allowed to suggest the maybe 'science' would be improved if errors in papers were corrected? Or if researchers were expected to engage in reasoned debate about the merits of their work - even after it had passed peer review!?
 
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Esther12 said:
I find these 'the way that science works is...' arguments interesting. Who gets to decide how 'science' works? Is anyone allowed to suggest the maybe 'science' would be improved if errors in papers were corrected? Or if researchers were expected to engage in reasoned debate about the merits of their work - even after it had passed peer review!?
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It's simpler than that. Sharpe is revealing the fact that he actually thinks science works by being part of the in crowd of keepers of the holy scrolls. This is a view fairly pervasive in Oxford, Wellcome and MRC. You don't get to sit at the same table at dinner unless you have done a page of the scrolls. Fortunately, real science carries on outside of this system - which has become progressively less and less productive in the last thirty years.
 
Dr Porter article is on p4 of this morning's Times2 (Wednesday March 19).

Yesterday's online version used the headline:

"ME: Treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome is a complicated matter"

the print edition uses:

"Treating chronic fatigue is a complicated matter"


Another vehicle for embedding the PACE/Sharpe SMC campaign:

However, I am concerned for the future. Prominent researchers, such as Professor Michael Sharpe of Oxford University, have left the field because of what they describe as internet stalking and toxic trolling. Some ME campaigners might regard that as no loss, but it’s the impact on the next generation of scientists that worries me more. If they are put off tackling the challenge, how are we going to make progress?
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At the end of the investigative process there will be many patients who will be left without a clear explanation, or a diagnosis such as ME. However, labelling someone in itself isn’t much good unless you can offer them a clear, evidence-based method for alleviating their symptoms, and herein lies the problem.
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So what is he talking about in this article: fatigue, or chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME and how does he differentiate between them? Or possibly he doesn't.


A few more extracts in this thread, here:

https://www.s4me.info/threads/speci...y-reuters-march-2019.8557/page-33#post-152449
 
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Jonathan Edwards said:
I think it is interesting that on this occasion the complaint was not really about abuse or death threats but about criticism of the science. And that was portrayed as hate campaign. So now Sharpe is being a bit more honest - he is actually complaining about the critique of his science. And his story about 'how science works' is nonsense. It is how the self-perpetuating establishment mediocrity works maybe, but in complete violation of the principles of science where scepticism rules supreme.
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It's interesting to contrast his bristling at criticism with what Ron Davis said at the start of his presentation on the first day that he talked in Australia. I'm paraphrasing here because I failed to record it, but the gist was that it is the job of a scientist to get up everyday and try to prove his hypothesis wrong. That's what he does all day, everyday, until he can't think of any other ways to prove himself wrong. Only then does he entertain the notion that his hypothesis might be right.
 
A good resumee re this issue, BBC coverage and media/ Sharpie and friends....

(Claire Fox) the sister of Fiona Fox, the SMC’s chief executive.




"Claire Fox @Fox_Claire
Brilliant interview with @profmsharpe this morning on @BBCr4today Depressing that it was due to the distortion and disruption of scientific research by a particular zealous cohort of intolerant, trolling campaigners (no doubt some of whom I am about to encounter)

BBC Radio 4 Today ✔ @BBCr4today
It's important that science "isn't bent by campaigning" says @profmsharpe. He has stopped his research on chronic fatigue syndrome because of online abuse from campaigners #r4today https://bbc.in/2TOEIcI "

BBC SMC handshttps://mrtopple.com/2019/03/18/the...C6gBC84Ji6xMBgXtuOmp0D7SOoVxQsyCpe_xqjYFOSCkQ

ME, Opinion Articles
The media is waging a coordinated war against chronically ill and disabled people

Posted on 19 Hours Ago by Steve Topple
 
At the end of the investigative process there will be many patients who will be left without a clear explanation, or a diagnosis such as ME. However, labelling someone in itself isn’t much good unless you can offer them a clear, evidence-based method for alleviating their symptoms, and herein lies the problem.
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A "label", as he calls it, is crucial if you have a child or young person who requires a reduced school timetable or provision of home tuition, or special arrangements for sitting exams etc.
 
Esther12 said:
I find these 'the way that science works is...' arguments interesting. Who gets to decide how 'science' works? Is anyone allowed to suggest the maybe 'science' would be improved if errors in papers were corrected? Or if researchers were expected to engage in reasoned debate about the merits of their work - even after it had passed peer review!?
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He is trying to gaslight his way out of the quagmire he helped create.
 
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