PACE Trial article follow-up: the momentum continues

Following on from my last post: there have been many developments as a result of investigative journalist David Tuller’s deconstruction of the infamous PACE Trial. I am significantly weakened by the work I have put into this project so this is just a short update for the record.

For new readers, this is the introduction from my previous post:

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that I have lived with the illness Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) for nearly 35 years. The condition is also (and misleadingly) known as “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” and is therefore often referred to as “ME/CFS” or “CFS/ME”.

I have previously written about the controversial PACE Trial (Principal Investigator: Professor Peter White of St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London) and its highly questionable effects on the treatment of patients – see PACE vs FOIA: Access Denied. American journalist and academic, David Tuller, has now produced an in-depth article which deconstructs the Trial and re-evaluates its efficacy. I have been in contact with David during the last eighteen months and I have given him some assistance with the production of this article.

The article is published on Virology Blog which is hosted by Professor Vincent Racaniello of Columbia University in New York City.

David’s article was published over three consecutive days, starting on 21 October 2015. The links to the article and further detail are in my previous post.

Since then, the PACE team’s authors have responded to the article and David has provided his reply to that. The links are at the end of this post.

There has been a huge media spin-off from the article and the ensuing discussion. Many articles have been published and more are in the pipeline. Social media has been awash with tweets and posts. This story’s not going away any time soon.

I haven’t been able to keep a running list of all the follow-up articles arising from David’s original piece; I’m just not strong enough to do that on top of everything else. However, the #MEAction website has been keeping a wide selection of relevant information and is well worth a visit. The site is also running a petition seeking retraction of the misleading claims in the Trial. David’s own tweets can be found @davidtuller1  [Note: since I first posted this, advocate Leela Play has added a list of some of the articles generated by David’s work in the Comments section below. I’m very grateful to Leela for her input.]

Significantly, the highly respected website Retraction Watch included references to Virology Blog’s series of posts on the PACE Trial in its Weekend Reads. It is the eighth item in the list.

Thank you for reading this. I wish you well.

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These are the follow-up posts from Virology Blog:

The PACE team responds: www.virology.ws/2015/10/30/pace-trial-investigators-respond-to-david-tuller/

David’s reply to the PACE team: www.virology.ws/2015/10/30/david-tuller-responds-to-the-pace-investigators/