Trial By Error, by David Tuller
-
Who Has the School Study Documents?
Update (later on March 4): Because Royal United Hospitals Bath suggested that I “redirect” my request for documents back to Bristol University, that’s what I did. Earlier today, I sent an e-mail to Bristol’s director of legal services. Here’s what I wrote: As you likely remember, I have raised concerns about a number of studies…
-
The Cost of MUS
In January, I wrote about the problematic online training course developed by the Royal College of General Practitioners and touted by Steve Brine MP as addressing the “misconceptions” about ME (or CFS/ME, as the online course calls the illness). The lead author of the course was Carolyn Chew-Graham, a professor of general practice research at…
-
Cochrane Update, and Caroline Struthers’ Latest Letter
The situation at Cochrane appears to remain fluid. Last week, the organization posted a notice that it is seeking a new editor-in-chief. The current occupant of the position, Dr David Tovey, is leaving in May. Dr Tovey has been at Cochrane for a decade, so this move could easily have been a long-planned departure. Since…
-
Letters to Fiona Godlee and Nigel Hawkes
This morning, I sent the following message to Dr Fiona Godlee, editor-in-chief of The BMJ and editorial director of BMJ. The subject heading: “My remaining concerns…” ***** Dear Fiona— Thank you for the quick changes to Nigel Hawkes’ BMJ news story about the UK Heath Research Authority’s letter on the PACE trial. I appreciate the…
-
Professor Sharpe’s Retraction Requests
After this month’s release of the Health Research Authority’s PACE analysis, Professor Michael Sharpe sent e-mails to at least two US publications requesting a retraction or major correction of critical articles. Professor Sharpe’s e-mails accused the writers involved of suggesting that PACE was “fraudulent.” This accusation was not true. In both cases, the writers had…
-
Spotila’s Take on NIH Grant Reviewers
Because of various developments in the UK and elsewhere, I’ve neglected goings-on back home. I’m working on a couple of things now but in the meantime I decided to post something typically insightful that Jennie Spotila published last week on her blog, Occupy M.E. It’s a frustration with this project that I don’t have the…
-
Re-visiting My Questions for PACE Professors
I thought it might be helpful to re-post a list of questions I wanted to ask Professor White and his PACE colleagues in September, 2015–more than a month before Virology Blog posted the first installment of “Trial By Error: The Troubling Case of the PACE Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study.” I originally posted this list on…
-
BMJ Amends Last Week’s PACE Article
Added Feb 12: I realized today that I wanted to add a couple of details. The new version of the BMJ article about the Health Research Authority analysis of PACE includes this sentence at the bottom: “Correction notice: On 8 February 2019 a new version of this article was posted with clarifications added.” For unexplained…
-
HRA Report Does Not Vindicate PACE
Last week, I reported that Bristol University had launched an independent investigation of research led by Professor Esther Crawley, at the request of the UK’s Health Research Authority. Today, the HRA released a report on the PACE trial that has portrayed it as a well-conducted study. GET/CBT supporters are framing this report as a vindication.…
-
And Another Prebuttal…
Update: Since posting this several hours ago, I have learned that the story I’ve been “prebutting” is not in fact likely to appear imminently; I suppose that means it could be weeks before publication. I’m not sure whether I misinterpreted the reporter’s statement that obtaining my response to the “harassment” claims was the final outstanding…
-
A Recap of the School Absence Study
Last week I broke the news that Bristol University is conducting an independent investigation of a number of studies that were exempted from ethical review on the grounds that they qualified as “service evaluation.” Because the issues involved are confusing and complex, I thought it would be helpful to repost here part of my initial…
-
A Bit More About Bristol’s Investigation
Yesterday I reported that Bristol University, at the request of the UK Health Research Authority, is investigating a number of studies conducted by Professor Esther Crawley. The results of this investigation are expected in two months or so. Today I can disclose that the scrutiny involves papers linked to a specific research ethics committee (REC)…