David Tuller<p>By David Tuller, DrPH</p><p><em><strong>October is a crowdfunding month at University of California, Berkeley. If you’d like to support my work, you can make a donation to the university (tax-deductible for US taxpayers) <a href="https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/43450" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a></strong>.</em></p><p>Last week, Guardian columnist George Monbiot wrote <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/18/maeve-bothby-oneill-me-chronic-fatigue-syndrome" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">another scathing piece</a> about the failure of the UK health care system to address the plight of people diagnosed with ME/CFS. (Monbiot’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/12/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-me-treatments-social-services" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">previous column on the issue</a> appeared in March; our interview about it is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC5i3vQ8vSs&t=1504s" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.) The new column was pegged to the case of 27-year-old Maeve Boothby O’Neill, whose death in 2021 from complications of severe disease has received extensive media coverage in the UK (if not, unfortunately, in the US).</p><p>But Monbiot’s main focus in this column was the sorry history of London’s <a href="https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Science Media Centre</a> in promoting egregiously flawed studies about the illness. The SMC, a PR agency masquerading as a purportedly neutral arbiter of scientific research, has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2003/dec/09/highereducation.uk2" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">been on Monbiot’s radar for decades</a>. Yesterday, Monbiot and I discussed some of the issues he addressed in the column, including what he has referred to as the <a href="https://www.monbiot.com/2024/10/23/how-bad-science-sticks/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“cruel and bizarre cult”</a> that has controlled it since its inception. (Because of a time lag on the zoom call, in a couple of places we seem to be talking over each other.)</p> <p><a href="https://trialbyerror.org/2024/10/25/guardian-columnist-george-monbiot-on-the-bizarre-cult-at-the-london-based-science-media-centre/" class="" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://trialbyerror.org/2024/10/25/guardian-columnist-george-monbiot-on-the-bizarre-cult-at-the-london-based-science-media-centre/</a></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://trialbyerror.org/tag/guardian/" target="_blank">#Guardian</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://trialbyerror.org/tag/monbiot/" target="_blank">#monbiot</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://trialbyerror.org/tag/science-media-centre/" target="_blank">#scienceMediaCentre</a></p>