Daft Idiots

Ohio State University press release.

Discovery Could Lead to Faster Diagnosis For Some Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Cases

COLUMBUS, Ohio - For the first time, researchers have landed on a potential diagnostic method to identify at least a subset of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), a complex disorder with no known definitive cause or cure.

In a pilot study of six patients, scientists detected specific antibodies linked to latent Epstein-Barr virus reactivation in blood samples from people who had experienced classic CFS symptoms and responded to antiviral treatment. Control blood samples from 20 healthy people showed no such antibodies.

…

So they tested six(!) patients, and on that basis the claim to have identified "at least a subset of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)". One does not need to read any further.

m(

And no only that, but "for the first time", none the less.

If anybody has identified subsets in CFS, it was Kathleen and Alan Light – long ago, with a much larger base of patients.

So who are these daft idiots, which lend their names to such BS?

Antibody to Epstein-Barr Virus Deoxyuridine Triphosphate Nucleotidohydrolase and Deoxyribonucleotide Polymerase in a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Subset

A. Martin Lerner, Maria E. Ariza, Marshall Williams, Leonard Jason, Safedin Beqaj, James T. Fitzgerald, Stanley Lemeshow, Ronald Glaser

Martin Lerner and Leonard Jason – guess my moderately elevated opinion of these two jokers just evaporated. While Lerner seemed a bit suspicious to me, Jason did not appear like someone who would participate in such publicity stunts – oh well.

Maybe, just maybe, these results will hold up in a larger study – or maybe it goes the way of all Herpesviridae results in ME/CFS (I'm looking at you Jose Montoya).