The Stanford Daily: Stanford Medicine professor (José Montoya) fired for violating University rules of conduct (june 2019)

It is not entirely clear to me why Jennie Spotilla feels the need to patronise us all by saying how simple she is going to make it. Perhaps I am just too stupid to understand.

 

Have you been following the discussions on Twitter? I don't know exactly what sparked this post of hers, but seeing how some people are talking about this on social media, I really appreciate Jennie's perspective.

 

@Trish, I agree with what you have said including your edit.

 

I’ll Make It Simple

June 5, 2019 by Jennie Spotila

http://occupyme.net/2019/06/05/ill-make-it-simple/

 

Spending time reading the stupid things some people say about ME/CFs on twitter was one of the most depressing weeks of my life. There are these pockets of idiotic certainty that I'd been entirely unaware of.

 

When the American Psychiatric Association (APA) issued a news release, in December 2009, announcing an extension to the timeline for publication of DSM-5 from May 2012 to May 2013, I receive emails from a patient in Alaska convinced that the reason the APA were delaying publication of DSM-5 was because of CFS and XMRV.

A while later, the World Health Organization revised its projected release date for ICD-11 (the second of several postponements) in response to its own missed targets. (I had periodically reported that ICD Revision was known to be slipping well behind schedule.) A UK advocate from the Norfolk area, who really should have known better, circulated a commentary suggesting the reason for WHO's extending its publication timeline was because of....yes...the paper on CFS, ME and XMRV.

The G93.3 legacy terms were a single code amongst over 55,000 unique codes for injuries, diseases and causes of death, around 120,000 clinical terms and thousands of new categories added for the new edition. But hey, let's not miss an opportunity for a conspiracy theory.

Sometimes I too despair.

 

There seemed to still be a lot of XMRV tweets on twitter... but coming from about two people. If someone is committed to tweeting as many people as they can about how they're certain of something something loopy like that then they can end up making CFS patients look bad.

 

I just spoke with scheduling department at Stanfords CFS Clinic. I was told Dr Montoya is on sabbatical, there is no acting director for the clinic, and they don’t know who will take over his patients. There is another doctor at the clinic, Dr Bonilla, who they said will continue seeing patients as scheduled. I read previously that Dr Montoya knew Dr Bonilla personally and recruited him to work at the clinic. Stanford CFS clinic is the only place I know of that treats CFS and accepts medical insurance. Dr Kaufman, Dr Kogelnik, etc do not.

 

I think this is why I find twitter so distasteful ...it can give a warped sense of opinion that infers consensus. People whose thinking is fuelled by emotional and impulsive responses like the medium I suppose. It’s no surprise to me that passions run high and that it’s attractive to people who work in the fields of acting, politics and the arts. The worrying thing is the way journalists use it as validation of consensus, which I find lazy reporting since only about 20% of people actually use twitter which is a lot lower than Facebook.

We all act impulsively (me included) but the way twitter fuels quite negative emotions of a few regular posters is a worry. Someone should do a trolling behaviour study on this vs Facebook or other media...I think it would make interesting reading.

My hope is that twitter and Facebook will soon implode and we can go back to talking and listening, and have less sensational and childish journalism. There are signs that twitter has reached its peak of users (I’m ever hopeful). Facebook to me though is a far more sinister situation (in terms of manipulation) and has far more users (percent in the high 60’s). It’s surprising though that journalists don’t use it more as validation ...more difficult I suppose (and more work ...like proper reporting).

Of course me posting this on a forum here to like minded people is also a bubble I suppose? It’s a bubble I prefer though.

 

Oh. if I could count the times people have told me this and have seen them back on within a few hours?

 

I try to stay on and positively engaged, particularly when Twitter gets difficult, though try not to get embroiled in unproductive culs-de-sac.

I think constructive responses are vital, but not for everyone, and I pick my timings & engagements carefully. Though am not always wise ...

 

Dr. Montoya has released a statement concerning the events of the last week. I of course can't judge its accuracy, but it definitely puts forward a different story than what has been reported in recent articles, and is hard to reconcile with his firing from a tenured position. Here is his statement:

Dr. Montoya Responds to the Events of the Last Week

 

His attorney is a fool.
This is a thin denial and reads like a non acknowledgement acknowledgement.

 

Playing the Hispanic card is insulting to anyone's intelligence.

 

To be clear, that link is to HR, where Cort is reporting a statement that he says he has received but doesn't link to an original source.