We had to provide a link to this superb letter written to Simon Wessely by Professor Steven Lubet concerning the PACE trial and the former’s enthusiastic support of said study despite its innumerable flaws,
We particularly like the paragraph,
‘You compare the PACE Trial to an ocean liner plotting a course from Southampton to New York, and express satisfaction that it made the trip “successfully across the Atlantic,” despite course corrections along the way. But surely you realize that a randomized controlled study is not supposed to have a fixed destination, but rather should follow wherever the evidence – or the current, to maintain the metaphor — leads. You thus virtually admit that the PACE Trial was always intended to reach a particular result, and that adjustments along the way were necessary to get it there.’
Especially pertinent re Wessely as his extreme bias towards the biopsychosocial model of ME is well known and he is an enthusiastic supporter of any research promoting his views, however flawed and unscientific it may be, and most is extremely flawed and unscientific.
Professor Lubet does not examine PACE’s scientific and methodological flaws covered by many others[1] but instead addresses Wessely’s rhetoric (propaganda) which is as Lubet puts it ‘unworthy of a serious scholar.’*
Enjoy yourselves, it is a fantastic read.
*We’ve never felt Wessely represented serious scholarship, being far more a political player and networker than serious scientist.
1) http://hpq.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/10/27/1359105316675213.full.pdf.html
Reblogged this on Short Blogs for the Distracted……… and commented:
Breath of fresh air…
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Thanks Chris.
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