(Not a recommendation) Alastair Miller on CFS

I doubt it, I was unimpressed to see the MEA had this in their latest newsletter

Oh i probably wrong then, i suspicious of everyone since Crawley was disingenuous about the MEA on the radio recently trying to make out they didnt want research into paediatric ME when she knows perfectly well it was SMILE they didnt want.... it's all just so underhand & sly, & it feels like CS is a very unwelcome voice in the press (to the BPS crew). I know many would like him to say much more, but when AfME are so 'on-side' the MEA isnt very convenient for the BPSers. I'm just a bit :cautious::cautious::cautious: i guess.
 
Oh i probably wrong then, i suspicious of everyone since Crawley was disingenuous about the MEA on the radio recently trying to make out they didnt want research into paediatric ME when she knows perfectly well it was SMILE they didnt want.... it's all just so underhand & sly, & it feels like CS is a very unwelcome voice in the press (to the BPS crew). I know many would like him to say much more, but when AfME are so 'on-side' the MEA isnt very convenient for the BPSers. I'm just a bit :cautious::cautious::cautious: i guess.
Sorry, didn't explain myself very well. Given that the MEA had that article about his little team of BPSers in their newsletter, my suspicion is that Barton would play nice for a while but it could well be that he'd continue trying to undermine them as best he can.
 
Just to say that Colin Barton definitely posted this on the MEA's facebook page on 28th December. I deliberately ignored it because, having posted EC's TEDx talk there on 24th Dec (-Merry Christmas!) i felt Barton was likely being provocative & trying to get a rise out of people, or get ammunition to enable him to paint the MEA as part of the whole activist/anti scinece nonsense.
It got no responses, presumably because of the date, & on 30th Dec he posted it again, when it did get some comments. (At which point he must have deleted the 28th Jan post as it disappeared (so it doesn't now show up in visitor posts but the 30th Dec one was still there yesterday when i checked).
But im categorically certain that it was initially posted on 28th because it was directly underneath someone's 'early new year wishes' msg, & i was periodically watching & hoping that people would keep making posts in order to move it down the page before it got any notice.... (Which is what happened & then it appeared again 2 days later) I'd have posted something myself to make it move down quicker but was too ill to think of anything/do it.
30th Dec post
 
CFS is purely a symptomatic condition. If you have no symptoms you do not have CFS.
This reminds me of an old "Irish" joke (it's from the days when such jokes were in vogue), and someone asks an irishman to look at his car indicators to see if they are working. He goes and looks: "Now they're working ... now they're not, now they're working ... now they're not, ...".
 
It gives the impression that Colin Barton is more interested in representing the medical advisors to his Kent and Sussex CFS\ME Society, Dr Esther Crawley and Dr Alastair Miller, than being interested in representing the ME sufferers of Sussex and Kent.

I get the impression he's never understood why people like Miller/Crawley are being criticised, and has spent years feeling proud of himself for supporting science and evidence based approaches to CFS while authority figures pat him on the head and praise him for it. Seems unlikely he's going to be able to acknowledge that his sense of achievement was built on nonsense.
 
He (CB) is probably loving that we’ve got a thread on here about his one man attempt at BPS propaganda. I guess with so much more positive media coverage in recent months he’s feeling the need to get the BPS message out there to the masses. He seems to be a lone voice on MEA Facebook popping up from time to time with BPS BS. Although there’s a few voices that post on there of the my cousin did LP or GET and recovered. Usually well countered. Even in AFME Facebook not many prepared to knowingly push BPS. More On the lines of the CFS/me clinic people were so supportive and really helped me type story. But the AFME Facebook seems a lot less active than MEA anyway. They only regular post AFME do is fundraiser of the week - anyone would think they’re only interested in money.
 
Moved posts

Alistair Miller seems to be somewhere in between.
I do hope between a rock and a hard place but suspect he is a 'rough tough' ex military sort of guy? Therein lies the problem, one for GW veterans too....

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-...ing-borrowed-something-blue-the-true-story-of

He created and led the Gulf War Illness Research Unit in 1996, a joint enterprise between IoP and War Studies, with professor Christopher Dandeker and Lawry Freedman. It has just been awarded large grant to study the health and social consequences of the Iraq deployment.
He is civilian advisor to the British Army, and regularly advises MOD, DH, NATO and various US agencies on psychological aspects of military service, terrorism and psychological injury and side effects of Medical Counter Measures. (my emphasis)
 
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I do hope between a rock and a hard place but suspect he is a 'rough tough' ex military sort of guy? Therein lies the problem, one for GW veterans too....

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-...ing-borrowed-something-blue-the-true-story-of

He created and led the Gulf War Illness Research Unit in 1996, a joint enterprise between IoP and War Studies, with professor Christopher Dandeker and Lawry Freedman. It has just been awarded large grant to study the health and social consequences of the Iraq deployment.
He is civilian advisor to the British Army, and regularly advises MOD, DH, NATO and various US agencies on psychological aspects of military service, terrorism and psychological injury and side effects of Medical Counter Measures. (my emphasis)

I noticed this on MEpedia. Guess what he worked at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine --- where, you've guessed it, Paul Garner works --- @Trish might provide the link to the News Night interview but I'd caution against watching it.

I see Alistair was "Principal Medical Adviser from 2010-2015 for Action for ME" - which must cover the glory years --- supporting PACE ++++. I've no idea about his recent actions/views --- maybe they been more positive?




Alastair Miller


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Dr. Alastair Miller, is a semi-retired infectious diseases physician. He was a founding member of the British Association for CFS/ME (BACME) and served as Principal Medical Adviser from 2010-2015 for Action for ME.[1] His main clinical interests are blood borne viruses, bone and joint infection and CFS/ME.[2]

During his career he was:[3]

  • Consultant Physician in the Tropical & Infectious Disease Unit at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital
  • Honorary Fellow at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine 2005 until May 2014.
  • Honorary Senior Lecturer at The Institute of Infection and Global Health at Liverpool University
 
Linking to this post; Miller remains very much involved in pushing the BPS line:
Alastair Miller

... as co-author with Paul Garner and PACE trial investigator Peter White of this letter to the Guardian:

Paul Garner, Alastair Miller, Peter White:

Long Covid and graded exercise therapy | Letters | The Guardian, 11.03.2021

No trials of graded exercise have shown to harm patients, say Dr Alastair Miller, Prof Paul Garner and Prof Peter White, so those with post-Covid fatigue syndrome should not be discouraged from trying it

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/11/long-covid-and-graded-exercise-therapy
 
Source: Alastair Miller
Date: December 22, 2017
Author: Alastair Miller

I am a NHS consultant physician in Infectious Disease and General Internal Medicine who has been involved in the NHS evidence based management of CFS since my training as a registrar in the late 1980s. I was head of the large CFS service based within the Tropical & Infectious Disease Unit at the Royal Liverpool University hospital from 2006-2014 and prior to that had established and led the County wide service for CFS in Worcestershire. I was a founder member of the British Association for CFS & ME (BACME) and have recently stood down as chair of that organisation (the specialist society for all clinicians involved in the management of CFS) after 4 years. I was Principal Medical Adviser for Action for ME for 5 years.

Which = what? Gravy train/confirmation of being at the wheel of all this, or 'claimed eminence'? Potato potato unless you look at the state of where treatment and level of debility for those with ME/CFS is:

"Having been involved in working with patients over many years in the development of new therapies for HIV and hepatitis"

Which ones would these be? And how is 'recovery' defined in those conditions and their progress reported? Why do even these stats not existed for the condition he apparently presiding over in many areas for decades?

All he seems to be able to show for himself in the rest of his letter is nonsense about 'if only patients would stop expecting a voice and let me tell them how they are' and utter rage. Power differential issue or what highlighted here - I think this is surely evidence that 'research' done by this gang would not have been 'free will' regarding patient responses with no fear of what might be the impact if their answer was deemed to be 'wrong'?

From someone part of a group who will only use subjective reports in this way as 'evidence'.
 
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