Im totally done with XMRV–>CFS. It appears that scientists have gotten their heads back, and this last slew of testing was officially the death-blow for this hypothesis for me: Theres no XMRV in HIV-1 patients. Three studies now, not to find an association between the two. HIV/AIDS patients get everything and anything, and when they get it, it is pathogenic (even if its no big deal in fully healthy humans). Unless of course, XMRV is, once again the ‘exception’ to basic biology/immunology/retrovirology.
Can XMRV infect humans? Almost certainly. Does it, and does it cause disease? I highly doubt it, at this point.
But what will I do without my XMRV drama?
Have no fear– I have just read, quite possibly, one of the funniest papers EVAH!
The paper itself is straight forward– they looked in autistic and autistic spectrum patients, plus a mixed group of healthy controls (healthy family members, random blood donors, infants, etc). They even looked in autistic kids born to CFS mothers. Europe and US.
230 autism, 204 controls.
They could not find any proviral XMRV, despite targeting a highly conserved region (Real-Time PCR).
They could not find any antibodies to XMRV in anyone (Western Blot).
Okay, thats just data. Thats not funny. This is whats funny: they basically called “Bullshit!” on Mikovits and WPIs irresponsible comments to the public regarding XMRV and autism, and vaccines, and their clear financial interest in the XMRV–>anything connection:
In an interview given on the same day as the Lombardi publication, Dr Mikovits stated that they had found XMRV in a ‘significant number’ of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) samples and speculated that ‘this might even explain why vaccines lead to autism in some children’ [6]. Shortly thereafter, widely circulated articles appeared, containing non-peer reviewed data with reports that XMRV may be present in ≥40% of people with autism [7]. Given the recent controversy over the connection between ASD and the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, a scientific evaluation of these statements is important [8,9].
Translation:
Mikovits started talking to the media/patients/parents before she had any published science to back up her claims. She increased fear of vaccines. She still hasnt published anything. So I guess we are going to clean up this mess for her.
HA!
And then theres this:
COMPETING INTERESTS
BCS and RAG are employees of Cooperative Diagnostics. Cooperative Diagnostics is
a commercial enterprise that owns the rights to the XMRV real-time PCR assay
described in this manuscript, in addition to the Master Mix that was used. Publication of
these results may well reduce the potential market that Cooperative Diagnostics could
reach with its XMRV assay.
HA HA!
Mikovits/WPI are pushing their non-FDA approved, non-quantitative, non-diagnosing ‘XMRV and all magic-eye viruses’ test to the general public for $$$$$. They have a vested interest in the connection between XMRV and anything.
So did Cooperative Diagnostics.
But Cooperative Diagnostics were honest enough to say “*shrug* We couldnt find shit.”
Heeeeeeheheheheheh!
Now, just to be clear, this isnt funny because Mikovits/WPI are wrong (scientifically and philosophically). If Ive said it once, Ive said it a thousand times: Scientists are wrong all the time. This is not novel or weird. Its funny because Mikovits/WPI went out of their way to personally attack researchers that could not replicate their findings. They fear mongered the general public regarding XMRV as a whole, including autism and vaccines, just for fun, I guess, since they arent publishing those now year-old results. They flatly refused to believe they could have made a mistake… despite the fact scientists are wrong all the time!!
Thats Kook Kountry. I like laughing at Kooks.