Let me start by saying that I did not know where the notebooks were, or even that they were missing, until the lawsuit was filed. If Judy did this, she didn’t tell me. I knew how concerned she was about them and I can tell you as Judy’s friend, she believed that, as the PI (principle investigator), she had a right to them. She had no legal representation until the law suit and the legal issues are very complex. There are issues with not just who owns, but who can even see the notebooks. She said to me that the notebooks documented mistakes that others wouldn’t want brought to light, something she had only realized recently. In our communications, her concern was always for the research and fulfilling her promises to patients. There didn’t seem to be anything she wanted or needed to hide for herself. She was mostly concerned about the specimens, in the months leading up to this. She feared that they could be tampered with. Freezing and thawing destroys them. Her specimens were like her babies. So whatever she did, it was in that context. She and Max are very close, so he must have been very frightened to have signed that statement. Was he offered immunity or a reduced sentence? Did he have a lawyer? Max was missing for two days before Judy was arrested (and not listed on the Washoe County arrest list). My last text to Judy, around when she was being arrested was about Max, “Is it time to call the police?”.
I still think what I thought. The Whittemore’s have destroyed a very talented scientist, through the most incompetent management imaginable. And now Max. From my vantage point, the whole thing seems to have spiraled out of control after Dr. Lipkin’s visit. My guess is that the patents and saving VIP Dx/Univex are at the bottom of it all. As Annette likes to say, “Follow the money”. Or in this case, the lack thereof. As Harvey allowed me to say in the blog about VIP Dx, he doesn’t have more money to pour into this, since the real estate market went south. Now I imagine they feel entitled to recoup their investment. VIP Dx brought them down. It all began with good intentions, but they have lost their way, in my opinion.Here is the first email I ever wrote to the WPI, dated 10/28/09, after learning that commercial testing was being offered, before I met Judy in Jan 2010:
I am trying hard to think of WPI as a resource full of people who want to help, when nobody else has. But it has come to my attention that the lab that is doing the testing has a financial tie to a member of your board of directors. I am broke. I think four members of my immediate family will test positive for this or another similar virus. I pretty much know that anyway, without the test, but it might make a difference to my disabled daughter to be able to walk into a doctor’s office and say, “I have Virus X”. And I can’t even give her that, at the moment, because her acute medical problems have to take precedence.
I know a conflict of interest when I smell one. Shame on you.
Jamie Deckoff-Jones, MD
Their PR person answered that Annette Whittemore would contact me directly, but she never did. And there you have it. It never changed. She is non-responsive. Doesn’t answer email or phone calls. I’m sure lots of you out there can verify that statement. Her voicemail is often full. She disappears for long periods. Can’t make a decision to save her life. And when she finally does, it was generally the wrong one, in my opinion. I never signed a contract; she spun her wheels about it for months, but never managed to actually give me one. Even so, I wrote nothing after I was fired, except that I’d gotten a “pink slip”, until Judy was fired. Though I knew how terribly flawed it all was, my opinion at that time was that it was better for the patient community for them to exist. But without Judy, it is just a black hole.
I’m not sure exactly what went wrong with the BWG, but part of it was an attempt to validate their commercial assay at the same time. So again, they shot themselves in the foot over the commercial lab. When Lipkin came to dinner, Annette told him she had 19 people on the payroll. Judy had Max and Cassie, both without graduate degrees. And then just Max. Annette has a personal assistant.
Many have asked me what happened with me at the WPI. Here it is, and then I hope I am done writing about the WPI. I have good things to report from my practice, which is what I should be writing about. I can’t tell you all how badly I would like to be done with this. My goal in writing this blog was to be of assistance, not be an energy suck, which is what this whole sordid affair has become.
I became involved with the WPI, because patients corresponding with Judy were sending me her answers to medical questions. I told her that answering those kinds of questions was a reflex for me, and since she was really bad at it, she should let me do it. She thought it was a great idea, but that I needed to have an official relationship with the institute. So I became ?; don’t even remember the title, but it was an official, volunteer position that enabled me to respond to patient information questions.
Without reviewing our email for dates, in late 2010, since the clinic seemed dead in the water, I presented Annette with a model for structuring it, fashioned after emergency medicine groups, generally a contract held by the physician group. It’s set up that way to protect the institution from medical liability. Annette loved the idea and asked me to make it so. An LLC was formed and we hired a physician recruiting company who started to send candidates. I wanted to set it up as a primary care clinic with specialty back-up. I was looking for competent doctors, not specifically CFS specialists. It is one very homogeneous disease after all (I can hear the gasps from here:). Annette expressed her relief to have me, saying that she knew she couldn’t evaluate doctors. She acknowledged that she knew nothing about running a medical practice.
On 3/23/11, already in conflict, I sent this to Annette in an email:
A good administrator:
1. Knows what she doesn’t know.
2. Knows how to delegate.
3. Protects the talent.
She said I was mean. I said I’m the best friend you have. You are paying me to be a consultant and I’m telling you what I think.
I provided a rough spreadsheet, with some numbers provided by the WPI accountant, that showed roughly a million dollars a year in profit with 10 doctors, which would be donated back to the institute for research. The budget asked for $100,000 up front, to be quickly repaid, which included my salary prior to opening. I even said that it was possible to get it open with no money, if I paid the doc’s a percentage of gross, the way we did in the ER. I thought the distribution of expenses at the WPI seemed not in favor of producing any meaningful science, so I do admit to wanting to have a say in how the money was used. I expressed this to Judy, but not to Annette, though she probably sensed it. There was no evidence of a presence of a board of directors that I could detect at all when I was there.
I went to Reno to interview doctors in early spring. Two weren’t right, but Chitra Bhakta was perfect. However, 15 minutes before Chitra arrived, Annette informed me that she had seen new lawyers in Las Vegas and had decided to employ the doctors rather than structure it as a separate corporation. I told her that I thought it a serious mistake for her to employ or try to manage doctors directly. Managing doctors is like herding cats, having done it before. Before my first crash, I was a 20% owner of an emergency medicine contract group and medical billing company in San Jose, CA. My 4 partners and I had 3 contracts and were responsible for 150,000 patient visits per year. I was vice president of human resources. I was responsible for recruiting, hiring, firing, knee-capping. We had 50 doctors and 20 PA’s. I was, in fact, the right man for the job at the WPI. Though sick, I was willing to go down for it. I figured I could last at least long enough to get it up and running, find an onsite director. Getting fired saved me from myself, but I wanted to offer treatment to those 2000 people on the interest list. I wanted to develop a large database, so we could look at treatments in a systematic way. And Judy and I were planning the first clinical trial of tenofovir.
So Annette decided to employ the doctors, including me. I said, it’s your baby, structure it however you like, but let me get to work. My attitude was that I owed her a debt of gratitude that could not be repaid and I would do what she needed me to. We agreed that Chitra should be the first hire. I told Chitra she was hired and that Annette would be in touch with a contract. Well, six weeks passed and no phone call to Chitra, no contract, nothing.
I was planning another recruiting trip. I had at least two interesting doctor candidates, as well as a nurse. I also had a couple of practice manager possibilities. Quite a few of the interested candidates for staff positions were a little sick, which Annette wasn’t happy with, but as it was with me, that’s what there was, except for training newbie primary care doctors. No famous CFS doctors were stepping up to the plate, except for Dr. Enlander who called me and offered to fly to Reno on a regular basis to teach. The other thing we locked horns about a bit was that my approach is non-invasive with respect to treatment choices. I have a strong bias against treatments that can kill, as well as unnecessary invasive procedures when there is plenty of necessary tissue harvesting happening in patients that would be happy to help. But it was always clear that I would not be determining protocol for other doctors. That was never the idea. I was actually thinking that with different doctors doing their own thing, the database would help us sort it out.
Shortly before that trip, Annette pulled the plug all together, deciding that there would be no clinic. Rather doctors would lease space and have their own practices. When I went to Reno for the Lipkin visit, I spoke to Dr. Fredericks and asked him if he would consider using Practice Fusion, free EMR, for the patients that he saw from the WPI wait list. I was still hoping to create the database somehow.
I also asked and received permission for Chitra to see patients under the same deal as Dr. Fredericks. After discussion with Chitra, Annette agreed, then, never got back to her, again. From what I could unravel after the fact, the WPI lawyer somehow decided there was something wrong with her credentials that would prevent her from getting a NV license. Chitra did her internship in NV and then her residency in California. Her NV license needed to be reactivated, but there shouldn’t have been a problem with it. Precisely the kind of thing they needed an administrator for, but they fired me, so there was nobody bird dogging it that had a clue about the sytem. In the meantime, Chitra’s father died and she had to go to India. By the time she got back, the WPI had decided that there was some problem with her. It seems they have even damaged her reputation with this nonsense. In the midst of all this, I was fired, “because we don’t need a clinical director”, but asked to still volunteer, to write for their website or something. I think it happened because Annette is a control freak and couldn’t stand the thought of not calling the shots for the clinic. She did pretty much the same thing with the research, as far as I can tell.The Whittemore’s went public saying that Andrea takes a pill that makes her well enough to work and exercise, but wouldn’t say what it is. So patients, sending in their $10/month from their social security checks can’t even know, let alone hope to access what Andrea has. I expressed my opinion on multiple occasions that this was wrong and an exceedingly poor decision on many levels. It would have been fine to say nothing, but to use it to bolster the reputation of the institute, without disclosing what that treatment is was disgusting. And then Annette lying on the news about all the miracles happening. Using another patient similarly. We got her out of a wheel chair, but won’t disclose her treatment… Fairy dust. My loyalty is to the patient community and I am feeling guilt about saying too little, not too much. People have a right to medical privacy and certainly saying nothing was an option. Many, many people have asked me, but it is not my place to disclose anyone else’s treatment. I never have and I never will. However, as I said to the Whittemore’s, being a public figure has it’s responsibilities and this went down with typical ineptitude.
I am not going to guess what happened with respect to the notebooks before speaking to Judy. The black and white thinking displayed here and on FaceBook is telling. Even poor Lilly Meehan, the sweetest woman on earth, is collateral damage. If Judy isn’t a saint, then Annette must again be one, and Judy now has to be the sinner. All black and white. The reality is all shades of gray, imperfect people in an imperfect world. Epic fail. And that includes me, since I was briefly on the payroll. No matter what just happened with the latest chapter of this disaster, it was very unfortunate that Judy was hogtied by incompetence the entire time. Annette should have stuck to her fund raising activities. But she doesn’t know what she doesn’t know. It was like Keystone Kops. Amateurs. And who are the biggest losers? As usual, it’s the patients.
>Based on everything I've ever read on this blog and elsewhere, every single person who's ever been associated with the WPI is both incompetent and unethical.
We as patients deserve better than this.
>Doctor Jamie I applaud your honesty.
It was A: Dr Judy and her connections with the Ruscettis and B: Your involvement and the promise of a clinic that made me the rabid WPI supporter that I was.
Note that was stated in past tense.
>"The reality is all shades of gray, imperfect people in an imperfect world." That I can agree with.
But honestly, all of Mikovtis' defenders, yourself included, are skirting the issue of her asking Max Pfost to steal all that data. It's inexcusable and morally indefensible. I'll just copy and paste what I wrote on facebook:
>Max is responsible for his own actions. But unless he is lying about Mikovits asking him to steal all that material, and I can't imagine why he would lie, it is clear that she was the driving force. Even if we give her every benefit of the doubt, that she was within her rights to take the notebooks, that Lombardi and the Whittemores were conspiring against her, etc, it is still ABSOLUTELY INEXCUSABLE to ask your employee, your grad student, to commit a crime for you. And it wasn't just their lab materials! She asked him to steal files on Dr. Peterson, who she suspected of committing medicare fraud (???). No matter how you slice it, it was unethical on so many levels to ask Max to do those things.
>For those who haven't read about Harvey Whittemore , his business dealings and his influence in the state of Nevada, please read all sections of this Wiki entry
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Whittemore
>Keep in mind that the allegations in those statements–one of which was notarized by a personal secretary of Annette Whittemore–are just that, allegations. They are not proven facts. There is a difference between an affidavit and a court verdict.
Whatever Dr. Mikovits did or didn't do, she always acted with the best interests of patients and science in mind. I wish we could say the same for the WPI.
If the WPI had handled Dr. Mikovits' firing in a more professional manner, or if she had never been fired, all of us would be better off.
The intellectual property issues should have been worked out in September behind closed doors with the help of mediators and possibly lawyers. Instead, Mrs. Whittemore chose to fire Dr. Mikovits over the phone and lock her out of the lab.
We have all paid a steep price for Mrs. Whittemore's impulsive action made in a moment of anger and pique.
>Thank you for stating the truth.
Like @Siobhan I also used to be a rabid supporter of WPI.
>Jamie, again Mikovits is lieing to you.
As a trained research scientist I can testify to the fact that in the industry it is never ok to take notebooks out of the lab or the facility they are housed. One may make photocopies and keep them but the originals always stay put. Even if the PI moves to a new facility the originals stay with the Company not the PI. If Mikovits is telling you there are things in the notebook that are embarrassing then it would be embarrassing to her not others since she has made it a point to claim they are her books.
In the end you just need to admit she duped you and your readers of this blog.
>Using the words, "in my opinion" does not excuse one from libel. As a former disgruntled employee, your comments need to be taken with a grain of salt. As far as I am concerned, Judy Mikovits lied to you, her patients, she has helped to ruin the carreer of another employee of the WPI, she caused untold rifts in the patient community. She has lost all credibility and has helped to slime the WPI and the scientific community in general.
Intellectual property issues should be worked out behind closed doors unless somebody has the research stolen in a childlike temper tantrum because her employer wouldn't do what she said. As soon as she had the material stolen and ran away and hid, any negotiations behind closed doors became impossible. Mikovits could have quietly moved on and tried to get hired elsewhere, but no, she conspired with another person, had the materials stolen, lied about it to the world via her lawyer. She was the instrument of her own demise because I doubt she will ever get hired anywhere. And even though most of the materials have been returned which may solve the civil suit, she still has outstanding felony charges against her which may result in her imprisonment. Nobody made her behave the way she did, she chose to. People can make all the excuses for her that they want to, bottom line, her dishonesty and childish behaviour has slimed us all.
>Anon 6:43 and 6:56,
From the point of view of the big picture, it doesn't really matter if Dr. Mikovits duped me or not, does it? It certainly won't be as simple as that. What matters is that her research is gone, delaying any chance for specific treatment for our disease. Discrediting her this way only assures that no one else will be brave enough to go near similar research for some time to come. And there was lots of time for mediation before what happened happened.
Jamie
>@anon 6:56, most of the materials have been returned? When did that happen? Source?
>There is more to this-there is diversion of federal grant monies, contractual research, and patient/donor monies by the WPI. You cannot change the mission of a contract or a grant by deciding to use its resources elsewhere and undermining your Primary Investigator. Mrs. Whittemore interfered every day. She undermined the proper authority of the PI while leaving all responsibility for the ethical and legal requirements of running a research lab to that PI. That isn't legal. You cannot take those monies, refuse to let the PI see the numbers, and demand the PI keep allowing your pet reference laboratory PhD to take cell lines to play with and remove supplies from the research lab. WPI individuals shouldn't be continuing an organized worldwide campaign of frightening ill people with personal threats as well as the general threats to their health and meager means around the world with blogs, "Another Letter From…" and personal emails to chill dialogue. WPI should have had an up and fully running clinic years ago, as well as more support for Dr. Mikovits lab instead of shaking down frightened patients for unvalidated lab tests from the Whittemore private lab-now located in the "not for profit" building. Conflicts of interests? Constantly threatening Judy because she wouldn't lie about results? Firing her because she refused to give in? Judy's research is still good research and it is being developed further by other people. See the research citations and read them. A CLIA sticker doesn't make a lab test validated. Calling it "clinically" validated doesn't make lab tests validated either. Never had a phlebotomist yet-Judy had to hire one and paid her for the work of the 2009 paper with her personal money. But the reference laboratory was a big money maker while desperate patients ordered them. The fundraisers? There are some proprietary issues as well-NIH money is given out for research to eventually be used, released, for the benefit o the public. The Federal grant monies are not supposed to line the pockets of certain extended family and political associations of benefit to the individuals so they can have personal assistants to run their dry cleaning errands an pick up fine wines and groceries for their parties. The researchers do not lose their life's work before and after only to credit the bank accounts of of individuals. If WPI was meant to be for real, there would have been clinic doctors long before now, clinical studies, and Judy would have had more help and more resources to build upon her excellent work
Western Rider.
>And anon 6:56, truth is an absolute defense to libel.
Jamie
>@Jamie Deckoff-Jones MD
You are so right on.
All of us that suffer with this illness feel duped and that all of this has only hurt all further research for mecfs.
What a sad day.
>Jamie,
Your right and I agree that it really doesn't matter that you acknowledge she manipulated and lied to you. What I don't agree with is that JM is the only person capable of making a real contribution to CFS research. You want a real treatment for the disease but using JM research would be to you base that treatment on false data and sub-par research.
>Jamie, I'd love to hear your take on the involvement of Pfost. What's your take on the morality of Judy asking him to steal that material? Or do you think he's lying?
I'm sorry, I just can't get my head around how anyone can defend her after asking her grad student to do that.
– Andy Vaughan
>Source that most of the material has been returned is the WPI Facebook page.
>I think it's time to stop bashing the WI and move on. Judy's husband made it very clear yesterday. It doesn't serve patients
Milo.
>I am so sad about all of this. I put tremendous energy and money supporting WPI.
Not anymore.
They have dug their own grave.
>The only evidence Andy is Max's statement. Anyone who has read it can see the problems therein.
@Anon 7:14AM
There is nothing sub par or false about Lombardi et al. If there were you would name a specific and then be corrected on whatever foolish comment you had posted. The fact is there are no negative HGRV papers, as results using clinically unvalidated assays are irrelevant.
>What if Max and Judy hatched the idea together. They both knew exactly how it would go down and planned it that way. The plan was for Max to say she "masterminded" (that word even makes me laugh in this situation) the whole thing. She may indeed have enough info on the WPI to negotiate with and come out damaged but not out. Max is young and was willing to fall on his sword knowing it wouldn't kill him. He has, after all, been wearing his "big boy" pants for at least a couple of years.
I am not defending Judy, just pointing out there's lots of ways this could have happened.
>"What matters is that her research is gone, delaying any chance for specific treatment for our disease." Your Direct Quote. I disagree.
What really matters is that her work is not of interest to any researcher and has no bearing on treatment for our disease. Had Dr. Mikovits been a valuable asset, she would have been in another lab working right now.
Name five reputable researchers who publically have supported her work. I do not see respect, nor support from top reserchers for WPI nor Dr. Mikovits. Sometimes it is not what is said, it is what is NOT said.
>Then how did people hostile to Mikovits and the research get hold of the raw Lombardi data and post it on the web? Mikovits has done nothing wrong.
>F & S Ruscetti, Lo, Hanson, Silverman, Alter, Cabrera for a start support the work.
>Anon 7:57
If you are referring to the slide, it was in her presentation and copies were available to many people. All one had to do to see the original label was remove the formatting. This is not rocket science.
>you are all guilty of lying to the patients and presenting us wth false hope. this blog should a have been stopped once the cracks in the organization began. if judy m was manipulated by the whittemores she should have gotten help. patients donated time money emotional and energy to a bunch of chalrlatans…and i include you in that too jamie…..whatever good you and judy thought you were doing for the patients was bullshit….you caused the population more problems than you solved. we've lost 2 more years of our lives based on your overly optimistic blogs, judy's overly optimisitc meetings and interviews and the whittemores incompetence. you should all hang your heads in shame for what you have done to an already abused and suffering community……shame, shame, shame.
now our hope lies with the real scientists in real research facilities: lipkin/columbia, klimas, the norwegians even the CAA….here's hoping they do not participate in more deciept and games like all those assoc with WPI did.
your final words as a blogger on this matter should be I AM SORRY!!!!!!
Disgusted former supporter.
>Silverman does not support the work at all anymore.
>Western Rider wrote: Mrs. Whittemore interfered every day. She undermined the proper authority of the PI while leaving all responsibility for the ethical and legal requirements of running a research lab to that PI. That isn't legal. You cannot take those monies, refuse to let the PI see the numbers, and demand the PI keep allowing your pet reference laboratory PhD to take cell lines to play with and remove supplies from the research lab.
It's frustrating as someone on the side lines grabbing at scraps from blog comments and message boards, and trying to put the pieces together.
If you truly have credentialed inside information sympathetic to Dr. Mikovits, please do her (and us all) a favor and serve as a source for Cohen or Tsouderos. Mikovits needs for the press and public to understand her motivations because. After that damning affidavit it's difficult for those of us trying to see both sides of the story to sustain sympathy.
>Not the slide the raw data that has nothing to do with the PowerPoint presentation.
>Silverman has not stated he doesn't support the work. Only his portion of the paper was retracted and the viruses found to not be VP62. Not the same thing.
>You cannot have a damning affidavidt, only a piece of evidence that may or may not be shown to be correct.
>I am so tired of theories about "who shot John."Let's move on and try to ascertain who else other than the "WPI players" can help our cause. They certainly can't and energy shouldn't be wasted on them imho. They have all fallen on their swords. Jana Jagoe
>Oh, so now the affidavit is itself unvalidated? Just like all those other negative assays and studies? Denial is such a wonderful state of mind, so much better than facing reality.
>The truth always has a way of coming out eventually. There was statement in a newspaper that reported that "an institute leader demanded Mikovits give another researcher a cell line paid for by a federal grant issued specifically for Mikovits' work." And that "turning the cell line over to another researcher would have involved unethically diverting federal funds, possibly for the personal benefit of the institute."
If true I believe that would constitute misappropriation of federal funds and possible fraud. Any PI would not be agreeable to that, and should also not have been fired for refusing, if that was the case. Many questions and hopefully soon some answers. If I had data in the materials I know I would not want my information to be where any misappropriations might be in jeopardy of happening.
I also don't think it was fully clear where the grants would go. I believe it might have been in the process of a decision. WPI could have just avoided all the problems I would think by relinquishing the grant to the NIH until the decision was made. But that's my opinion.
>Innocent until proven guilty. Some people are on a witch hunt.
>@ anon 8:16, true, an affidavit is not inherently damning, or truthful, but taken in context with the other facts it is certainly plausible. The notebooks and laptop ostensibly found in Mikovits's possession did not teleport there. As she was unable to take them herself, someone acted as her handmaiden. We know now that she lied about the materiel, and that damages her credibility.
My point was that we need a larger picture given Mikovits's seemingly unethical actions. Given the circumstances hinted by Jamie and anon poster 7:09 about Annette Whittemore, it sounds like Dr. Mikovits believed that she was acting in the best interests of the patients. Why didn't she alert the NIH about Mrs. Whittemore's interference with protocol? What about the mistakes in the notebooks? Why not make copies and go to an attorney, or a journal editor? How much of this is actually true?
>Annette Whittemore has fooled us all. We thought we could trust her but all along the way she was feeding her ego and sabotaging ME research and ME patients. All except for her own daughter, of course. It also seems that Annette has single-handedly ruined the careers of many doctors and I fear that she is not done yet.
Thank you, Dr. Jamie, for filling in the missing pieces. I appreciate all you have done for us and all you continue to do for us. Ignore the idiotic comments on here; there are many people who are actively working against the ME community and the truth of ZMRVs in ME ever being taken seriously, as you know.
I can vouch for what you say, many patients and myself had found that the WPI never bothered to answer our questions or get back to us but Dr. Judy always did, even late at night. I don't know how she managed to do it, really, but I'll be forever grateful to Dr. Judy for giving her career and now possibly even her life to ME research.
I feel better knowing the truth even though it hurts. I hope there will be justice for Judy and I'm glad she has such a good friend in you. I'm also very pleased that you were able to extricate yourself from the WPI and start your own clinic in Hawaii, Dr. Jamie. I know this hasn't been easy for you, but you are a beacon of light for genuine ME patients.
Thank you so much for your honesty and integrity,
Tracey
http://peoplewithme.com/index.php
>I thank Dr. Deckoff-Jones for the timeline of events and the thoughtful explanation of what happened at WPI and Dr. Mikovits.
I can well understand a researcher's attachment to her research and her write-ups and analysis of that research. It's her life's work. She dedicated herself to it.
I think it's too bad that she no longer has the material documenting her own work.
And I also want to say that when I first heard of WPI, I looked up the Whittemores, and found the aforementioned entry on Wikipedia. It outlines ties to the tobacco, alcohol and casino gambling industries, as well as ties to big real estate moguls, lobbyists and success in whittling down environmental protections and employees' rights. That shocked me, and I've always looked at this institute with a questioning, if not skeptical eye.
I always thought that money — and lots of it — was at the bottom of all of this. I can't dismiss that there is genuine concern for their daughter's health and a wish to help her and others with CFS. I just don't know.
I wonder why the doctors weren't followed up with, gotten back to, why a clinic wasn't set up. I have no idea about all of this except what I read brings on more questions.
But I don't feel hopeless at all about this. What is it about putting all of one's eggs in one basket?
I'm hopeful about Dr. Enlander's setting up a research and treatment center at Mount Sinai. Attendees at his seminar on Nov. 20 were impressed, and think the researchers are committed to studying this disease with the goal of finding treatments.
And other scientists are working on finding causes, how the disease impacts on CFS sufferers, and treatments, now more than ever.
I'm for waiting and seeing what happens with Enlander, Lipkin, Klimas, Komaroff, the Lights, etc.
I just hope I'm still around when the discoveries are made, although given the rising costs of medical care and medications — and the decreasing federal budget allocations to health care programs, I don't think I and many others will be able to afford treatments.
>Innocent until proven guilty. Some people are on a witch hunt
Regards,
http://www.tyloscleaning.com
>@anon 10:14
Where have you heard that any if the materials have been found?
>Jamie said: "The black and white thinking displayed here and on FaceBook is telling. Even poor Lilly Meehan, the sweetest woman on earth, is collateral damage. If Judy isn't a saint, then Annette must again be one, and Judy now has to be the sinner. All black and white."
Kind of like your description of Annette in this post, eh Jamie?
>(WHO returned the documents?) So far it seems there is no evidence that demonstrates the truth of Pfost's allegation. Just because he worked for her does not prove he was still following her directions. This is noit legal rocket science; "he said she said" is always a problem. But what if they had a conversation that left him believing she would like it if he stole them- but it was only his fantasy?
And: the hope Jamie offered was based on her experience w, ARV's. And she never tried to clain that her anecdotal reporting was the last word. I met w. her personally, and she discouraged me from using it, so she wasn't pushing it blindly.
>"We have all paid a steep price for Mrs. Whittemore's impulsive action made in a moment of anger and pique."
WTF? I'd suggest replacing "Whittemore" with "Mikovits" and then maybe your statement might make sense.
>@anon 10:56 "Where have you heard that any of the materials have been found?"
A "Happy Thanksgiving" message posted today on the WPI facebook page included this statement "We are thankful that most of our property has been returned."
>Dr. deckoff jones, a few questions:
Did you actually expect mrs. whittemore to instantly reply to your first email after you insulted the WPI?
How can you use the term 'implosion of the research', but then later say that your main worry is that dr. jmikovits being fired, now theres no chance of treatment?
And you said in your first email "I am broke". A friend of yours tell me you come from a wealthy family and live in a multimillion dollar house. Is that true, or are you lying too?
>All I know is that I emailed the clinic in good faith, asking for ideas of costs for treatment for ill friends in the US as well as any possible contacts in Australia. I guess it was pretty obvious from my email I & my friends aren't flush with cash. I got a nice little email back from someone who I guess volunteered to answer emails & I was reassured I would be sent all the info within a few weeks at most. Still waiting, months later…..
>No I think the statement is correct. The anger caused the impulsive firing. The "Whittemore" sounds correct to me. The statement makes perfect sense.
>I forgot and will add that I agree with Dr. Deckoff-Jones about being for ME/CFS treatments that aren't dangerous or intrusive, or have side effects which could cause serious harm.
>Well hopefully the materials have been returned to the NIH for safekeeping. Until this is all sorted out.
>@ ANON @ 6.09pm You only admitted Max was respponsible for his own actions after I had pulled you up on it on facebook . The following is my post from facebook before you wrote the one you have put on here ……..
At the end of the day Max is an adult is he not and he is responsible for his own actions . Wether what he has put in his affidavits are true or not is another matter as there seems to be several discrepancies from what I have read so far . This trial by kangeroo court is quite sickening to watch tbh . and its amazing how all of the trolls have come out to play on the forums and facebook ….
Im only using anon to post as its the easiest way to post on this blog for me but at least I have the guts to post my name . its Jo as anon well knows .