A man should never be ashamed to own that he is wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday. – Alexander Pope
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd. - Bertrand Russell
Once upon a time, there was a viral illness called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Which shares part of its name with Poliomyelitis, and frequently occurred in epidemics side-by-side with polio.
Then came the plan by CDC to change the name to the benign Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, so they wouldn’t have to admit there was another viral epidemic so soon after AIDS. Decades of research into ME was swept under the carpet, and CDC set out to convince us that all these patients – even the men, children and 20-something women – were simply depressed because they were menopausal. That the only problem was fatigue, and that none of the Central Nervous System symptoms were real.
The problem is that CDC can mandate what it’s called in the US, but has no authority in the rest of the world, where it continues to be called by its proper name. And doctors in those countries continued to research post-viral ME. Some CFS patients got advanced scans showing viral damage, brain lesions, and Central Nervous System dysfunction.
Dr. Anthony Komaroff of Harvard now counts 4000+ studies worldwide showing biological abnormalities in CFS/ME. Yet there are still those doctors and disability judges who stubbornly cling to their absurd opinions that CFS patients are faking, or depressed, or mentally ill, and could go back to work if they'd simply get counseling.
These patients return from a psych evaluation with a clean bill of mental health and the doctors and disability judges still refuse to believe that the patient is mentally sound, but suffering from a virus.
These patients see other doctors who do specialized blood tests proving there is something very wrong, and the doctors and disability judges refuse to acknowledge that those test results exist. (In my disability decisions, there is not one word about my blood tests. The judge could not continue to maintain that there is nothing wrong with me if he told the truth about those tests, so he doesn't mention them at all.)
Instead of admitting that new technologies that allow us to find scientific proof of biological abnormalities makes us wiser than we were, some people cannot allow themselves to be proven wrong. Like the Flat Earthers, they ignore any evidence they don’t like.
That the opinion that CFS is fakery was widely held is not evidence that it is not utterly absurd. 4000+ studies prove that it is absurd. The wise man would admit that the facts prove his initial impression wrong. But for some people 400 million studies would not be enough to get them to change their minds.
Our only hope is that as the evidence becomes more widely known, these people will find themselves laughed at the way they once laughed at CFS patients.
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