A campaign of intimidation, physical attacks and death threats against scientists has been pursued by activists who claim researchers are suppressing the real cause of chronic fatigue syndrome. Police say the militants are as dangerous and uncompromising as animal rights extremists.
One researcher said that a female protester who had turned up at one of his lectures was found to be carrying a knife. Another scientist had to abandon collaboration with US doctors after being told she risked being shot, while another was punched in the street. All said, they had received death threats and vitriolic abuse.
In addition, activists — who attack scientists who suggest the syndrome has any kind of psychological association — have bombarded researchers with freedom-of-information requests, made rounds of complaints to university ethical committees about scientists’ behavior and sent letters alleging that scientists are in the pay of drug and insurance companies.
“I published a study which these extremists did not like and was subjected to a staggering volley of horrible abuse,” said Myra McClure, head of infectious diseases at Imperial College London. “One man wrote he was having pleasure imagining that he was watching me drown. He sent that every day for months.”
PSYCHOLOGICAL
Chronic fatigue syndrome — also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) — is common and debilitating. A recent BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) feature suggested that as many as one in 250 people in the UK suffers from it. Patients are sometimes unable to move and become bedridden, occasionally having to be fed through a tube. For more than 20 years, scientists have struggled to find the cause, with some pointing to physiological reasons, in particular viral infections, while others have argued that psychological problems are involved.
It is the latter group that has become the subject of extremists’ attacks. The antagonists hate any suggestion of a psychological component and insist it is because of external causes, in particular viruses.
In the case of McClure, her “crime” was to publish a paper indicating that early studies linking the syndrome to the virus XMRV were wrong and the result of laboratory contamination. So furious was the reaction that she had to withdraw from a US collaboration because she was warned she might be shot.
HATE CAMPAIGN
A similar hate campaign was triggered by a study published in the Lancet earlier this year. It suggested that a psychological technique known as cognitive behavioral therapy could help some sufferers. This produced furious attacks on the scientists involved, including Michael Sharpe, professor of psychological medicine at Oxford University. He had already been stalked by one woman who was subsequently found to be carrying a knife at one of his lectures. The publication of the new study only increased the abuse.
“The tragedy is that this tiny group of activists are driving young scientists from working in the field,” Sharpe said. “In the end, these campaigns are only going to harm patients.”
None of the scientists the Guardian contacted believed chronic fatigue syndrome was purely psychological. All thought external causes were involved.
“There is an element that is heritable,” said Esther Crawley, a consultant pediatrician at Bristol University. “We also know that in children it is often triggered by a virus infection, while in adults it is associated with social deprivation. Stress and adversity is involved. To call this yuppie flu — as people have done — is a complete misnomer.”
Crawley has spent years trying to unravel the causes, but her refusal to accept that the condition is a result only of organic external factors has resulted in her being deluged with hate mail from extremists.
“You evil bastards ... time is running out for you so you have [sic] better start denouncing your flawed inhumane therapy and pray to God for forgiveness,” one said.
“To those who are responsible for preventing us sick ME sufferers from getting the help we need ... you will all pay,” another said.
As to the extremists’ identities, police say only about 20 hard-line activists are involved, individuals who probably have partners or children with ME and who also suffer from other psychological problems.
BIZARRE
Certainly, many of their claims are bizarre, says Simon Wessely, of the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London.
“They say I am in league with pharmaceutical companies in order to suppress data that shows a link between viruses and the syndrome, but why on earth would drug companies do that? If they could link the condition to a virus, they would be well on the way to developing lucrative treatments and vaccines. It is crazy,” Wessely said.
He has installed speed-dial phones and panic buttons at the police’s request and has his mail X-rayed as a matter of routine. He gave up his research on chronic fatigue syndrome several years ago, though he still treats patients.
“I have moved my research interests to studies of Gulf war syndrome and other conditions linked to war zones,” he said. “That has taken me to Iraq and Afghanistan where quite frankly I feel a lot safer — and I don’t mean that as a joke.”
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
Forecasters in Europe yesterday warned of exceptional heat as record temperatures driven by a “heat dome” push temperatures well above seasonal norms across the continent. The surge follows a record-breaking Monday, with France logging its hottest day in the month of May on record, its weather agency said, and the UK also posting unprecedented highs. A so-called “heat dome” of warm air from northern Africa trapped under a high-pressure system over western Europe is behind the high temperatures not usually seen until high summer. Restrictions on outdoor work were imposed in parts of Italy, beaches in southwest France filled earlier than usual and
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
RSS