The obesity wars and the education of a researcher: A personal account, 2021, Flegal

This paper/article appeared in the journal "Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases".

It isn't related to ME but so much of what is described reminds me of some of the experiences of writers and researchers on the subject of ME - people like David Tuller ( @dave30th ) and Keith Geraghty ( sorry, couldn't remember or find his member name).

Title : The obesity wars and the education of a researcher: A personal account

Author : Katherine M. Flegel

Link : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033062021000670

I also liked this sentence :

and I wondered if the reactions to ME/CFS research could be described as a partisan issue as well? But it might not fit.

 

I should point out that I found my way to the above paper via this tweet :

https://twitter.com/user/status/1405939411330629634


And from that Twitter thread I got to this blog post, which is really quite funny :

https://eathropology.com/2013/11/15/make-me-some-science-i-cant-refuse/

 

Wow, this is so interesting. Thank-you for posting this.

 

Thank you, @Arnie Pye! Fascinating.

 

I remember that at the time Flegal's paper was published. The criticism was astonishing. I've since realised that a false narrative for obesity is promoted in the same way as that for ME. There is no doubt in my mind that they are similar. I can see a political motivation for it (neoliberalism), but I have no idea how it happens, i.e. how scientists and clinicians get involved in promoting these false narratives at the expense of their integrity and professionalism.

 

In post #2 above I mentioned the Twitter thread that I got the link from for this particular thread. I just went back and looked at some more of that Twitter thread and came across this - it's jaw-dropping!

 

I think this paper is very important because it shows that using dirty tactics to talk down criticism exists and is used in research that is not ME related to shore up professional careers.

We are mocked for seeing conspiracies and not being willing to accept any research that does not support our beliefs. When we try to explain the truth to, say, Hilda Bastien, it easily sounds as if we are just paranoid but the experience of these researchers shows it happens.

 

I don't know anything about this issue, but just reading the paper, I was struck how Sharpe, White and Wesseley could read it and identify with Kathy Flegel, and claim that exactly the same thing had happened to them. All the things that were said about Flegel's paper are things that we have said about the PACE trial, and Flegel says

This is exactly what the BPS brigade say.

Like I said, I know nothing about this issue and have no reason not to accept Flegel's paper at face value. But it strikes me that anyone, including her opponents and ours, could say exactly the same thing and believe that it applies to them. It wouldn't surprise me to see Sharpe or White tweeting it as an example of what they have suffered.

 

That is because they use the tactics of bullies or the abusive husband by painting themselves victims and accusing others of what they are doing.

The thing that shows they are wrong and that Flegel and us are right is that science debates the issues and differences. There are big differences of opinion in cosmology for instance but the people involved give reasons for their opinions and an outsider can consider the data and decide where they stand.

Science is not decided on twitter or in sound bites but that is all we get from the BPS.

 

Trying to think how they could identify with the quote from a student who was told that Flegel couldn't be taken seriously on obesity because she was a little plump herself.

 

Well they complained that Keith Geraghty's paper was suspect because he had ME. Completely ignoring the fact that someone with the disease could be said to be less ideologically biased towards any particular approach because all they would want is a proper treatment that works.

 

That's true!

Also I remember a comment a while back to say that a piece of research should be discounted because it was paid for by one of the ME Charities

(can't remember though who said that and what the research was - although brain setting me off in the direction of it being blood circulation or POTS related?)