Simon Wessely is receiving “Death Threats”

“Scientists working on chronic fatigue syndrome or ME have received death threats and are being subjected to a campaign of abuse. Professor Simon Wessely of King’s College London describes the threats that have been made against him.”

Photo Credit: May 12

You can hear the BBC report here.

Wessely makes a deplorable strawman argument – aided and abetted by the interviewer – that ME suffers would “…rather have an incurable disease than a potentially curable [psychiatric] condition” and that they worry if they ascribe the condition to psychiatric causes this would mean they “acknowledge [they were] making all this up”.

I don’t even know where to begin with this.

Wessely talks about how ME sufferers should not close the door to psychiatric treatment, when he himself closed the door to any biological treatment.

He also fails to understand that ME may indeed be “curable” if funds were diverted to looking for biological causes!

In the interview he walks back from “death threats” and talks loosely about “threats of violence”. He also comes across as an insufferable arrogant prick.

Related articles

• Head case (economist.com)
• ‘Torrent of abuse’ (bbc.co.uk)
• The British Medical Journal on the threat of “extremists” (nighearain.wordpress.com)
• ME researchers ‘receive death threats from sufferers’ (telegraph.co.uk)
• Chronic fatigue research: life after XMRV (nature.com)
• Simon Wessely is receiving “Death Threats” (chronicfatigueme.wordpress.com)

Simon Wessely – Friend or Foe

Simon Wessely is on the board of the Medical Research Council and claimed for many years that the causes of CFS/ME were all psychological, rather than physical. This meant that many sufferers were unable for years to obtain help for a physical illness.

Dr Wessely finally (recently) admitted a physical component, but still perplexingly says no research is needed into its causes.

He also suggested that Gulf War Syndrome was psychological, rather than physical. The prevailing concensus is now that the syndrome was caused by the cocktail of drugs the ground troops were injected with – against medical advice – before going to war in Kuwait.

This  puts him on the side of the insurance and pharmaceutical companies, who would find it far too expensive if M.E. was declared physical (particularly the drug companies involved with Gulf War Syndrome) as insurance companies only pay for physical illnesses.

He is generally disliked by the M.E. community.

Do you have any thoughts about or experiences with this man?

You can write to Professor Wessely here:

Professor Simon Wessely
Weston Education Centre
Cutcombe Road
London SE5 9RJ