QT -The Guardian calling out The Science Media Centre
🧵The SMC also has a long record of promoting & defending Graded Exercise & CBT for #MECFS. These treatments were withdrawn by NICE in 2021 because they are ineffective & harmful. All the evidence was low or very low quality.
George Monbiot has written about #MECFS & how the "establishment closed ranks around bad science, defending it from legitimate questioning and criticism."
He mentions the involvement of the SMC in this clip.
And more in his thread
The treatments and approach were pioneered by Simon Wessely who was also a founding member of the SMC, sat on the board and has been their scientific advisor.
me-pedia.org/wiki/Wessely_s…
simonwessely.com/Downloads/Othe…
PACE was the largest study of treatments for #MECFS. A re-analysis paper that found Graded Exercise & CBT are not effective.
The paper used the pace authors original outcomes (changed mid trial) and data released by FOI.
Article by George Monbiot
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
The SMC released a fact sheet to journalists to try and discredit the paper before it was published. It described PACE as a "good quality trial", and said papers critical of PACE are published in low impact journals.
web.archive.org/web/2018032205…
meassociation.org.uk/2018/04/forwar…
The Journal of Health Psychology dedicated an entire issue to understand the problems with PACE. Experts overwhelmingly agreed it was flawed, and the results were unreliable.
The SMC published a number of 'expert reactions', all defending the trial.
sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reactio…
I previously put together a thread about the problems with Fiona Foxes chapter on #MECFS from her book about the SMC.
Further reading
margaretwilliams.me/2013/role-of-s…
healthcarehubris.com/post/media-sil…
usrtk.org/industry-pr/sc…
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.