(Reposted from Newly Nerfed)
Two years ago, researcher Judy Mikovits was riding high atop a wave of promise.
She had published one of the most discussed papers of the year in one of the most prestigious scientific publications in the world.
Her team’s findings were hailed as a potential breakthrough for an illness — chronic fatigue syndrome — that had long frustrated researchers. She was invited to speak at scientific conferences around the globe. Adoring patients crowded her at her talks.
Now, in a stunning twist, Mikovits is sitting in a California jail cell, held without bond, awaiting an arraignment hearing Tuesday. An arrest warrant issued by University of Nevada at Reno police lists two felony charges: possession of stolen property and conspiracy.
She was fired in September, and this month her former employer filed a lawsuit alleging she had wrongfully taken lab notebooks, a computer and other proprietary data. Other researchers have discredited her work, and the journal Science, which published her study, is investigating whether the data were manipulated.
The only constant is the patients who continue to rally around her.
“Remember that we are behind you every step of the way, even whilst you sit alone in jail wondering what will come next,” one person wrote on a blog called OslersWeb.
(source: Trine Tsouderos, Chicago Tribune)
I know a lot of people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) – Joey at Newly Nerfed is one of them. My husband and sister both have fibromyalgia – and soul-crushing fatigue is a component of this disorder.
It exasperates me that people are supporting Mikovits and responding to her, as though she’s some kind of martyr – as this excerpt indicates. It’s the same sort of hogwash that happened after Andrew Wakefield was exposed: even though he’s a fraudulent researcher, that doesn’t matter to his anti-vaccination groupies. I won’t be surprised if Mikovits’ crimes also get swept under a massive carpet.
Judy Mikovits is exactly where she deserves to be. I only wish she could have been caught sooner – before her paper was published.
Homo sapiens sapiens is supposed to be “man the wisest”. If people are still fawning over a woman in jail like this one, then they have a long way to go, in my book.
I remain, as 2011 ends,
Disappointed in the intelligence of humanity.
