David Tuller and I have written a response to an alarming research paper that appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. We have posted a preprint with the Open Science Foundation, and David has also posted the text in full over on Virology […]
It turns out that not all medical doctors are infallible. Who knew? Some of them, it seems, dally at the margins of pseudoscience. Take for example the latest BMJ Op-Ed from the doctor who cured himself of long COVID. He says he did so through positive thinking. Go him! ‘Pseudoscience’ is […]
David Tuller, Vincent Racaniello, and I have written to the BMJ about that guest editorial on the draft NICE guidelines for ME and related conditions. The letter is also online over at Virology Blog and has now been posted as a Rapid Response on BMJ.com. * * * Subject line: […]
Well, that escalated quickly. Or rather, slowly. Because when democracies start to fray, the corrosion is usually incremental: few regimes are overthrown overnight. The first few inflammatory statements are dismissed as innocuous, even as idiotic. But gradually, norms are shifted, tribes moulded, and scapegoats identified. Out-group hostility is the fulcrum […]
[A version of this article previously appeared in TheJournal.ie] In the 1930s, US President Calvin Coolidge made the following observation on the annual yuletide festivities: “Christmas is not a time nor a season,” he said, “but a state of mind.” This year, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a radical rethink of our […]
An invited, non-peer-reviewed guest editorial in the BMJ has claimed that behavioural interventions for “complex conditions” (such as ME or CFS) should not be judged using the customary criteria — and that the relevant studies should not be evaluated as though they were proper randomised controlled trials — because, among […]
David Tuller and I have written a response to an alarming research paper that appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. We have posted a preprint with the Open Science Foundation, and David has also posted the text in full over on Virology […]
Well, that escalated quickly. Or rather, slowly. Because when democracies start to fray, the corrosion is usually incremental: few regimes are overthrown overnight. The first few inflammatory statements are dismissed as innocuous, even as idiotic. But gradually, norms are shifted, tribes moulded, and scapegoats identified. Out-group hostility is the fulcrum […]
I have recently been quoted in not just one, but two recent articles about the controversial psychotherapy, the Lightning Process (insert your own “lightning-never-strikes-twice” joke here). Quite apart from my own contributions, both articles are well worth reading. * * * The first is from David Tuller, part of his […]
Here is my letter to the BMJ. I think it is pretty self-explanatory (nonetheless, I have added some additional context below the fold): Date: Sep 11, 2019To: <Fiona Godlee>, Editor in Chief, BMJRE: BMJ’s scientifically and ethically indefensible decision about Bristol’s Lightning Process study Dear Dr Godlee, First of all, […]
The Starbucks I go to is now selling magic beans. Well, matcha tea lattes actually, which are like magic beans in the sense that they possess special powers: Detox the body High in antioxidants Helps the immune system Burns calories I was particularly intrigued at the last claim. This latte […]
[A version of this article previously appeared in TheJournal.ie] In the 1930s, US President Calvin Coolidge made the following observation on the annual yuletide festivities: “Christmas is not a time nor a season,” he said, “but a state of mind.” This year, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a radical rethink of our […]
The Psychological Society of Ireland have issued a report on vaccine hesitancy, Maximising the Benefit of a COVID-19 Vaccine: Getting the Psychology Right. I was part of the group that produced the report, which seeks to explain how psychological barriers to vaccine uptake can best be overcome. The report was […]
Event announcement:– Next week I will be speaking at a virtual seminar organised by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties to mark World Human Rights Day, December 10 (from midday, Dublin time). I’ll be part of a panel discussing the challenges of balancing emergency public-health guidelines with human rights. How […]
If you have ten minutes to spare, here is an audio recording from my remarks at last week’s annual conference of the Psychological Society of Ireland: I was speaking on a panel on the psychological impact of COVID-19. The panel itself arose from a PSI policy statement issued in August, […]
The newly released draft NICE guidelines for the management of “myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy)/chronic fatigue syndrome” continue to cause a stir. And rightly so. The new guidelines not only repudiate a heretofore favoured treatment approach for a particular illness, they also threaten to discredit an entire (albeit quirky) branch of […]
Mark this day in your calendar. We could be observing the beginning of the end of a decades-long medical scandal. In the UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have published new draft guidelines for the management of “myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy)/chronic fatigue syndrome”. These are very […]
