Monday 26 January 2015

The pantomime of PACE

More nonsense from the PACE trial/biopsychosocial gang in mid-January. The BMJ and the Lancet and the Telegraph and the Times and the Guardian and the Independent and the BBC and god knows where else reported with varying degrees of ignorance and insult that people with ME were exercise phobic, as insulting a red rag as you can get. And they wonder why people with my illness feel hostile towards such  'research'. It's a fucking pantomime. The BMJ did not at first post my comment but a week later, it has appeared. You can see the other rapid responses too, though the fact it took them a week to put mine up is not exactly rapid (and my comment should read biomedical research consistently *ignored*, ignored is missing). Lots of great comments from doctors and patients and charities. We all keep saying there is a wind of change, that this idiocy has been stamped out, finally, and then they pull another mendacious rabbit out of the bag. Professor Trudie Chalder, one of the lead actors in the pantomime - but not the only one in a tightly-knit clique of offenders - has been gloriously satirised here, described as having an advanced degree in rocket science from the church of behave therapy. That sounds about right, considering the nonsense she comes out with. I was also amused to discover that chalder is an old Scots word for a measurement of grain. The possibilities are endless.

No comments: