Michael Sharpe skewered by @JohntheJack on Twitter

Indigophoton said:

He's thrown down the gauntlet to Carol Monaghan, who is hardly likely to be making it up! (He included CM in his reply).
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Doesn't sound like that apology is coming anytime soon. Steve Brine will be disappointed. Anyone on Twitter want to ask Sharpe to post a screenshot of his email to Carol Monaghan, so we can all judge for ourselves how 'unbecoming' his message was?

(I almost hope CM *was* making it up - after all the 'abusive activists' crap that Sharpe has spouted over the years it'd be poetic justice if his reputation was trashed by baseless allegations...)
 
It is really quite interesting when entirely reasonable critical comments from an MP about the quality of some science is called 'defamation'. Presumably then any rejection of a paper by an editor is sort of defamation. We had a newspaper piece about insults at the Journal of health Psychology editorial board - might we hope for some coverage here? "Scientist asked to apologise by minister now accuses MP of defamation'
 
dave30th said:
I should say that I'm pretty sure I've used the phrase "false illness beliefs" at some point but NOT as a direct quote from the PACE authors. I have used it as an objective description of the theory they have promulgated. It is clear from everything they have written that the theory at its core posits the absence of an organic disorder. When I have quoted them directly, I have often used the word "unhelpful," since that is the word used in PACE. But the reason the beliefs are "unhelpful" is because they are presumed to be false; in this case, if they were true, they wouldn't be unhelpful. So I can easily defend the argument that the phrase "false illness beliefs" is an accurate description of their theory even if they themselves have never used the word "false."
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In this 1996 paper by Sharpe, et al., Cognitive behaviour therapy for the chronic fatigue syndrome: a randomised controlled trial, they say:
Cognitive behaviour therapy offers a novel approach to treatment of the chronic fatigue syndrome. It is based on the hypothesis that inaccurate and unhelpful beliefs, ineffective coping behaviour, negative mood states, social problems, and pathophysiological processes all interact to perpetuate the illness.
[Bolding Mine]​
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I'm hard pressed to think to of something that is "inaccurate" yet "true." Common synonyms are "erroneous," "fallacious," "incorrect," "wrong," and yes "false."
 
Rather annoying for Sharpe that the only speaker who could remotely be said to be offering Sharpe a glimmer of hope / a little defence, the minister, also demanded his apology.

So after the most disastrous name-dropping exercise I've ever seen from Wessely, we now have the most disastrous lobbying exercise I've ever seen from Sharpe, who completely undermined himself just before the debate began. Watching these two clowns trying to out-politic politicians is bound to throw up a few more comedy moments.
 
large donner said:
Pain is not a measure of tissue damage? Really!!

Pain is a protective device, yes correct, but there's countless reasons for someone needing that protective device not just one airy fairy notion that pain should be magically explained away to people without an actual diagnosis or why that protective device is saying, "pain be aware differential diagnosis required".

I just got a check gearbox warning on my car dash, it could be a simple fluid top up required or a fucked gear box that needs the whole thing replacing. Perhaps ill just top it up with fluid and be done with it?

No surprise though that Sharpe liked that tweet.
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This reminds me of a nasty trick some car second hand car dealers employed back in my youth. The oil pressure warning light coming back on once the engine was running and the oil had warmed up (and was therefore thinner) was a typical sign of a knackered engine. So so dealers rewired the oil pressure warning light to the generator light, which also went out after the engine started and stayed out. Just another way of ignoring vital warning signs.
 
arewenearlythereyet said:
Where is Simon I wonder?
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I've been told by a very reliable source - okay, he's not that reliable - that Sir Simon retired from ME/CFS research many years ago. And he's had nothing to do with it since. No sirree. He wasn't even involved with the PACE trial - well, he can't remember whether he was involved and neither can Michael Sharpe (even though Sharpe is a co-author of numerous documents that clearly say that Simon was). And as Simon has pointed out recently, if he *had* been involved with PACE in any shape or form his monstrous ego would have demanded that he be listed as a co-author. But he isn't so he almost certainly wasn't. Unless of course he was - because no-one seems to remember and incredible as it may seem there's apparently no way to check...

So where is Simon? I imagine he's enjoying his retirement and hoping he doesn't get singed by Sharpe's apparent determination to commit self-immolation on Twitter.
 
Stewart said:
I've been told by a very reliable source - okay, he's not that reliable - that Sir Simon retired from ME/CFS research many years ago. And he's had nothing to do with it since. No sirree. He wasn't even involved with the PACE trial - well, he can't remember whether he was involved and neither can Michael Sharpe (even though Sharpe is a co-author of numerous documents that clearly say that Simon was). And as Simon has pointed out recently, if he *had* been involved with PACE in any shape or form his monstrous ego would have demanded that he be listed as a co-author. But he isn't so he almost certainly wasn't. Unless of course he was - because no-one seems to remember and incredible as it may seem there's apparently no way to check...

So where is Simon? I imagine he's enjoying his retirement and hoping he doesn't get singed by Sharpe's apparent determination to commit self-immolation on Twitter.
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I just get the feeling he may be there in the background toasting a few marshmallows on MS’s pyre.

Hope he doesn’t eat them too soon and burn his mouth
 
I don't know much about parliamentary decorum, but it seems to me that when you have conducted yourself in such an inappropriate manner that multiple MPs and a government minister call you out publicly and demand an apology, you have likely damaged your credibility and effectiveness as an advocate in the debate, and have undoubtedly undermined the credibility of your research as well.
 
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