Thread by @b_m_hughes

This thread supplementing @GeorgeMonbiot's column is arguably even more compelling.

It shows how bias & protectionism intrude on clinical research, bypassing the peer-review system that is there to protect the public.

Too often eminence, not evidence, carries the day

#mecfs

https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1382258404215914498

The "friends-of-friends" network guarantees that influential academic figures can effectively mark their own homework, distorting the scientific record and -- for good measure -- undermining the principle of evidence-based clinical practice

#MEcfs #pwme

thesciencebit.net/2018/11/03/the…

An inherent class system empowers privileged professionals to punch down hard on patients who have the temerity to challenge the quality of their clinical work.

In psych fields, this includes the power to dismiss critics as mentally unwell.

#MEcfs

thesciencebit.net/2019/03/21/if-…

Dismissals by psych professionals are frequently couched in centuries-old tropes relating to "hysteria", a proving-the-negative proposition that plays on stereotypes of feminine weakness and irrationality

#MEcfs #pwME #LongCOVID

thesciencebit.net/2020/07/27/pos…

Even out-and-out pseudoscience will get published in major journals if the authors are deemed to be VIPs ("Very Important Professionals"). Status is more important than science.

Editors, many of whom happily boast about standards, don't seem to care

thesciencebit.net/2019/09/11/my-…

Sometimes the favouritism is not even concealed. In-group papers get soft-soaped and happily published, while critical ones are not even sent out for review

#pwME #MEcfs #PACEgate @GeorgeMonbiot

thesciencebit.net/2021/04/10/our…

And sometimes any old ramblings can appear on the pages of a major journal, leading to a studio-hopping travelling medicine show promoting positive-thinking-as-miracle-cure. Just so long as the author holds a senior position within establishment academia

thesciencebit.net/2021/01/29/bew…

All of which provides maximum manoeuvrability in a time of crisis and uncertainty, as with Long COVID. When peer-review is never something you worry about, your claims can be all the more extravagant.
Old wine, new bottles indeed

#LongCOVID #meCFS #pwME

thesciencebit.net/2021/04/06/cho…

Ultimately, what is needed is a highly structured, even mechanised, system of review that focuses on objective data and truly independent adjudication. Risk of bias should be presumed to be high, and safeguards implemented accordingly.

As per NICE 2020:
thesciencebit.net/2020/11/21/no-…

And as we go, public scrutiny and analysis are absolutely essential. Not just clinical info and statistics, but also critical evaluations of how information gets produced and why it comes to be promulgated.

So take a bow @GeorgeMonbiot

#MEcfs #pwME

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

End of thread.

#MEcfs #ME #pwME #sciencetwitter @guardian