The US Government Will Continue To Fund The Authors Of [questionable Papers On Chronic Fatigue]

2023 Author: Abraham Higgins | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-30 04:59

The US government will continue to fund the authors of [questionable papers on chronic fatigue]

The US government will continue to fund research on chronic fatigue syndrome at the Wittmore and Peterson Institute of Neuroimmune Diseases in Nevada, despite the fact that a number of previous studies on the topic have been found to be invalid. The likelihood that funding will be terminated appeared after the dismissal of the project manager.

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The US government will continue to fund research on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) at the Wittmore and Peterson Institute for Neuroimmune Diseases in Nevada, despite the rejection of several previous studies on the topic, ScienceInsider reports.

As it became known, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) will continue to provide the institute with a five-year grant of $ 1.5 million. The possibility that funding would be cut off came after the dismissal in September 2011 of CFS research director Judy Mikovits, suspected of fabricating experimental materials and accused of stealing data from the institute's notebooks.

In 2009, the Mikowitz team published an article in the journal Science, which proved the relationship of CFS with the retrovirus XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, a xenotropic virus associated with the mouse leukemia virus). This article was enthusiastically received by patients with CFS as it offered a chance to understand the nature of this poorly understood disease.

After some time, the conclusions of the Nevada scientists were questioned by other laboratories, which over and over again failed to reproduce their results. After that, several authors of the original article admitted that a number of faulty and questionable data were used in the work. Because of this, Science partially refused publication. After Mikowitz's dismissal, the editorial board completely withdrew the dubious article.

In late December 2011, the authors of the second key publication on the viral nature of chronic fatigue, led by Shyh-Ching Lo of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), retracted their article, published in August 2010 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

On December 15, 2011, NIAID staff visited the Wittmore and Peterson Institute to review the qualifications of Mikowitz's researcher and research co-author Vincent Lombardi. As a result of this review, he was recognized as the new head of the CFS study, for which a government grant is allocated.

The NIAID Commission concluded that Lombardi possesses "professional competence and experience directly applicable to research under Objective 2 of the grant." Objective 2 is to study the genetic predisposition to CFS and dysregulation of the immune system in this disease. Objective 1 was to study the viral nature of CFS.

The allocation of the mentioned grant began in September 2009 and will end in August 2014.