Should The BMJ Have Silenced Authors Who Were Abused by a Reviewer?
Recalling how The BMJ told patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and their allies not to share unfair and abusive reviews of their paper
This 2017 Quick Thoughts article was retrieved from the damaged archives of CoyneoftheRealm Mind the Brain/Quick Thoughts and refurbished. It has a timely relevance to the struggles of 2023.
Today we are facing a concerted, well-financed pushback orchestrated by retired UK psychiatrist Peter White against updating the guidance of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for treating chronic fatigue syndrome. White’s long disclosure of financial interests hints at who is paying his bills.
Advocacy for persons with Long Covid faces huge obstacles to publicizing that suffers have a bona fide physical ailment that is not “all in their head.”
Control of media attention to pressing medical issues by the Science Media Centre of London has become more sophisticated. I am confident we’ll never see an academic who is not English invited to provide expert commentary at the SMC-L, and certainly not a patient, even one with connections to the Royals.
Much has changed since 2017. Much…