UK: Obituary for scientist Colin Blakemore, authored by Fiona Fox, mentions CFS

[Andy]

"Colin Blakemore (1944–2022)
Neuroscientist, science communicator and advocate for openness in research."


"In the 2010s, a small, outspoken group of campaigners demanded the retraction of MRC-funded research into chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis, which found that treatments including cognitive behavioural therapy could help some people with their symptoms. Blakemore wrote articles defending the research, arguing against pitting biological and psychological research against each other and warning that patients would be the losers if the scientific community gave in to pressure to close down any avenue of research."


"At a 2021 Festschrift event to honour Blakemore, the head of a non-profit science advocacy group called on others to learn from the ways in which Blakemore enabled passionate but respectful disagreement. “True tolerance in public debate … recognizes and acknowledges difference … and talks about it.”

A fitting legacy would be a scientific community that is prepared to be bolder and braver."

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01961-z

 

[Hutan]

Links to Daisymay's posts about Colin Blakemore's role in the MRC and the idea of ME/CFS patients as dangerous activists:

Info for others, Professor Sir Colin Blakemore was CEO of MRC 2003-2007, member of advisory council of Sense About Science 2002 to present. SAS is the organisation which organises the Maddox Prize, which Professor Sir Simon Wessely won in 2012. Professor Blakemore was one of the judges.

Media articles by or featuring Colin Blakemore and CFS, he was involved in the whole ME patients slur campaign and Wessely's Maddox prize:

Blakemore also seems to have been instrumental in establishing the PACE trial.

A fitting legacy would be a scientific community that is prepared to be bolder and braver."

Dear Fiona, I think we are indeed prepared to be bolder and braver, thanks. The problems created by cronyism and a departure from good science are now very plain.

 

[CRG]

An in memoriam that doesn't mention CFS, or the minutiae of the SMC: Professor Sir Colin Blakemore FRS

Blakemore may have been unhelpful in the cause of finding solutions to ME/CFS but he was an important scientist and science communicator.

 

[Tom Kindlon]

Here’s a link to letters some of us had published in The Times in 2011 in reply to some comments by him:
https://meassociation.org.uk/2011/0...letters-published-in-the-times-4-august-2011/

.

 

[Peter T]

I always have had problems reconciling the brilliant scientist I knew as an undergraduate from his published work and occasional lecture I attended, with someone more recently (PACE is recent when compared with my undergraduate days) willing to be associated with the pseudo science of PACE and the British BPS cultist.

I have not followed Professor Blakemore own work for a long time, and I sometimes wonder if a professorship blunts the recipient’s intellect, though having said that I am also aware of some professors who remain as sharp as ever.

 

[CRG]

I always have had problems reconciling the brilliant scientist I knew as an undergraduate from his published work and occasional lecture I attended, with someone more recently (PACE is recent when compared with my undergraduate days) willing to be associated with the pseudo science of PACE and the British BPS cultist.

I have not followed Professor Blakemore own work for a long time, and I sometimes wonder if a professorship blunts the recipient’s intellect, though having said that I am also aware of some professors who remain as sharp as ever.

I think this is the kind of thing that changes people: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/sep/14/animalwelfare.science for Blakemore it stopped being just about the science but the politics of what he understood science to be. Others clearly exploited that with their own claims of 'oppression' - albeit claims that were unfounded. Should Blakemore have been more astute in respect of the politics of PACE - yes but letterbombs sent to your kids can make your judgement about who is and is not 'the enemy' somewhat less incisive.

 

[Peter T]

I think this is the kind of thing that changes people: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/sep/14/animalwelfare.science for Blakemore it stopped being just about the science but the politics of what he understood science to be. Others clearly exploited that with their own claims of 'oppression' - albeit claims that were unfounded. Should Blakemore have been more astute in respect of the politics of PACE - yes but letterbombs sent to your kids can make your judgement about who is and is not 'the enemy' somewhat less incisive.

Thank you @CRG, I had forgotten about all this. The Oxford approach to vivisection was a major factor in my becoming a clinician rather than research psychologist. It was not deliberate cruelty but there were worrying elements of callous indifference to very real animal suffering. The little I witnessed is still vivid in my memory.

The animal rights focus on Blakemore came years later and I had completely forgotten the little I knew about it through the media. It is understandable that the anti Blakemore campaign changed him. I guess this also highlights the cynical way such as Wesseley and Fox sought to weaponised this to attack justified critics of PACE.

 

[BurnA]

OT : I remember that name Jessica Elgot.
(from 2015)
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...cise-oxford-university-study-exercise-cbt-cfs