Jennifer Spotila just put up a blog post on the conference, very concise and well sourced:
http://occupyme.net/2018/10/12/protesting-per-fink/
http://occupyme.net/2018/10/12/protesting-per-fink/
ACCME has an article on how CME credit providers should deal with controversial topics:
https://www.accme.org/highlights/dealing-controversial-topics-your-cme-program
An excerpt:
CME providers need to develop activities that encourage free and rigorous scientific discourse — while ensuring that faculty do not advocate or promote unscientific treatments and that clinical care recommendations are based on established scientific consensus. When a CME activity includes information about an approach to diagnosis or treatment that is not generally accepted, it is allowable to facilitate debate and discussion about the approach, but it is not allowable to advocate for the test or treatment, or teach clinicians how or when to use it.
I assume this is a statement regarding Per Fink. Official statement signed by Ian Lipkin.
Our studies of blood, cerebrospinal fluid, saliva and feces, using state-of-the-art methods that include microbial gene sequencing, metabolomics, proteomics, and immunological profiling, confirm that patients with ME/CFS have biological abnormalities that cannot be characterized as psychosomatic.
Committees convened by the National Academies of Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have also concluded that ME/CFS is not a psychosomatic disorder.
We are committed to actively investigating the causes of immunological and metabolic abnormalities in ME/CFS. Our hope is that this work will enable insights that lead to treatments.
Committees convened by the National Academies of Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have also concluded that ME/CFS is not a psychosomatic disorder.
Needs to be sent to the Reuters journalist, who wrote Cochrane articleYeah, basically the important part is
http://www.virology.ws/2018/10/18/me-cfs-is-not-a-psychosomatic-illness/W. Ian Lipkin, Director of the Center for Infection and Immunity and the Center for Solutions for ME/CFS at Columbia University, has written the following letter several days before the Fourth Annual Conference on Psychosomatics at Columbia University this weekend. The original letter can be found at this link.
Statement from Aarhus University Hospital
Danish research on functional disorders causes a stir in the USA
The Danish consultant and professor, Per Fink, PhD, DMSc, has been invited to Columbia University in New York to share his knowledge on functional disorders at the conference "Healing 'unexplainable' pain: Advances in Multidisciplinary Integrated Psychosomatic Care".
...
In Denmark, some individuals are against researchers' deviation from the classic distinction between physical and mental illness while trying to examine illness and treatment in a broad and multifactorial or bio-psycho-social approach. This resistance is an international phenomenon and in The States, some of the opponents have formed groups calling themselves 'patient activists'. A group of activists has taken initiative to a petition against Per Fink's active participation in the conference in New York. However, the organizers of the Columbia University conference have resisted this attempt to restrict the academic free discussion.
In Denmark, some individuals are against researchers' deviation from the classic distinction between physical and mental illness while trying to examine illness and treatment in a broad and multifactorial or bio-psycho-social approach. This resistance is an international phenomenon and in The States, some of the opponents have formed groups calling themselves 'patient activists'. A group of activists has taken initiative to a petition against Per Fink's active participation in the conference in New York. However, the organizers of the Columbia University conference have resisted this attempt to restrict the academic free discussion.
Statement from Aarhus University Hospital
Danish research on functional disorders causes a stir in the USA
The Danish consultant and professor, Per Fink, PhD, DMSc, has been invited to Columbia University in New York to share his knowledge on functional disorders at the conference "Healing 'unexplainable' pain: Advances in Multidisciplinary Integrated Psychosomatic Care".
...
In Denmark, some individuals are against researchers' deviation from the classic distinction between physical and mental illness while trying to examine illness and treatment in a broad and multifactorial or bio-psycho-social approach. This resistance is an international phenomenon and in The States, some of the opponents have formed groups calling themselves 'patient activists'. A group of activists has taken initiative to a petition against Per Fink's active participation in the conference in New York. However, the organizers of the Columbia University conference have resisted this attempt to restrict the academic free discussion.
I disagree, our opposition needs to be shown somehow. The support of other scientists and establishment members shows that it's not just a case of patients being vexatious. And I think labelling it the height of stupidity is unnecessarily harsh.Sorry to say it but the petition was a stupid idea and this outcome played right into their hands and is inevitable. They will now try to give more controversial talks in high profile institutions just to troll us and will be aiming to have further "protests against academic freedom". Making a petition to demand that someone should not speak at a University is the height of stupidity. They will make more traction out of such demands than not speaking at a University at all.
I mostly agree and it's really all about the word 'demand'. Replace that with 'Urge to reconsider due to grave ethical and scientific concerns' or something and that clears it up for me.Sorry to say it but the petition was a stupid idea and this outcome played right into their hands and is inevitable. They will now try to give more controversial talks in high profile institutions just to troll us and will be aiming to have further "protests against academic freedom". Making a petition to demand that someone should not speak at a University is the height of stupidity. They will make more traction out of such demands than not speaking at a University at all.
http://www.virology.ws/2018/10/16/trial-by-error-per-fink-in-new-york/Someone uninformed or stupid or maybe both decided to invite Danish physician Per Fink to present at a conference on so-called psychosomatic medicine being held this weekend at Columbia University. Fink—I won’t dignify him by using an honorific–is a scary guy. He should never have been provided with this prestigious platform—in my home town, no less.
http://www.virology.ws/2018/10/16/trial-by-error-per-fink-in-new-york/I am personally uncomfortable with uninviting people—even horrible people—once they have been invited to talk somewhere. But I understand why others feel differently. Fink is not just giving a speech. In this case, conference attendees can receive continuing medical education credits, which they need to maintain their professional standing. Fink will undoubtedly be offering harmful and unscientific advice to clinicians unaware of his background. So I am sympathetic to the request to remove him from the schedule, despite my own overall uneasiness about such a strategy.
http://www.virology.ws/2018/10/19/trial-by-error-a-reminder-about-saturdays-columbia-protest/So here’s an official New York #MEAction announcement about the event. I would be there tomorrow if I weren’t still in London trying to make my own noise.
andyou have decided to invite to your gathering a man involved in what can only be called the kidnapping and torture of a vulnerable young Danish woman diagnosed with the illness you have just indicated is a serious organic disease.
http://www.virology.ws/2018/10/17/trial-by-error-the-psychosomatic-conferences-pathetic-response/Your invitation to Fink is a disgrace–an insult to millions of patients around the world confronted daily with the sort of nonsense he and his collaborators in the UK and elsewhere have promulgated for many, many years.