I did a lot of reading and writing this week, so this will be a sendoff “lite.” Mostly I was taking a glimpse down the XMRV rabbit hole, and I can report that there is one hell of an anti-Wonderland down there. Science and skepticism need not apply; only a fanatical devotion to the promise of an XMRV-CFS connection and snarling distrust of those who suggest that there isn’t one yet.
Madness? This is Wonderland! Now take your antiretroviral meds.
I’m exaggerating (slightly) for effect, of course, and leaving out the rational patients with a skeptical attitude who I have encountered, some of whom have been kind enough to comment here. But generally speaking, it’s getting very, very deep. The CFIDS Association has clearly decided that XMRV hype is the best way to drum up research dollars, and I can’t say I necessarily disagree with that strategy since I want those dollars to come in as well. However, as a result, they are failing badly at patient advocacy, claiming they “advise caution” while continuing to beat the XMRV drum. Since I wrote my second post about this a couple of weeks ago, a second U.K. study has failed to identify XMRV in a cohort of CFS patients. Suzanne Vernon, Ph.D., who is scientific director of the CFIDS Association, has gone to great pains to explain this failure, in a note remarkable for its total lack of any mention of the possibility that there may be nothing there to find. So much for “caution.”
Happier stuff from the week included a profile of me on Skepchick, which kicked off their “Skeptic Next Door” series. And I watched a lot of curling.
I’m sending you off with a musical number from the original The Singing Detective, with Michael Gambon. If you thought the hospital fantasy sequences in Scrubs were bizarre, you should really check this show out.
