Trial By Error, Continued: My Libelous Blogging on Virology Blog

by David Tuller During a recent talk at the annual conference of the British Renal Society, pediatrician and staunch PACE proponent Esther Crawley accused me of libeling her. I wasn’t at her presentation, but her slides were captured and tweeted. Dr. Crawley’s lecture recounted her heroic struggle against the dark forces of anti-science—presumably, those pesky ME/CFS advocates who challenge her work. One slide included a mention of “libellous blogs,” along with a screen shot of one of my Virology Blog posts. Hm. This libelous Virology Blog post—“Trial By Error, Continued: The New FITNET Trial for Kids”–was about Dr. Crawley’s flawed research into ME/CFS and her proposed study of Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy for kids. The post explained how Dr. Crawley’s research conflates “chronic fatigue” and “chronic fatigue syndrome,” thus dramatically increasing the apparent prevalence of the illness. In the post, I also took aim at Dr. Crawley’s FITNET-NHS protocol and an earlier Dutch study of the same online intervention. I will not review the arguments here, but everything I wrote was based on facts. In that post and elsewhere, I have expressed my strong opinion, as a public health academic and professional, that Dr. Crawley’s research is misleading. In pushing that perspective, I have used sharp and snarky rhetoric to ensure my voice was heard. Maybe I’ve even been obnoxious. But that just makes me sharp, snarky and obnoxious. It d...
Source: virology blog - Category: Virology Authors: Tags: Commentary Definitions British Renal Society chronic fatigue syndrome Esther Crawley libel mecfs myalgic encephalomyelitis PACE Source Type: blogs