I have now received five independent e-mails in the last 36 hours from visitors to this site alerting me to a web site called, "CDC Chatter," apparently a place for CDC employees to make anonymous posts on topics of interest to them. They've sent internal posts they've copied from this site that are critical of Reeves and his CFS program.
It's odd that this CDC site has never been noted on Co-Cure or elsewhere. I was first alerted to this site on Saturday, October 31, the day after J. Mike Miller, Bill Reeves' boss and offically, the Associate Director for Science, National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-borne, and Enteric Diseases at CDC, sat stoically for two working days at the CFSAC meeting. The trim, gray-haired Miller looked directly at those who testified in front of the committee, and spent much of the rest of the meeting staring at the table in front of him, either doodling or taking notes. He remained impassive throughout. He reported that the retroviral program at the agency was "taking the lead" in an effort to replicate the Whittemore Peterson XMRV results. He said the agency was looking at samples from Wichita, Georgia and WPI to confirm the results.
"We're in the process of restructuring programs," he said, adding, "A number of options are being considered."
In response to criticsm from members of the committee about Reeves' recent comments to the press, particularly Reeves' comment that he did not expect the agency to be able to replicate the WPI finding of XMRV in patients, Miller said, "Dr. Reeves is not doing the lab work," to which someone replied, loudly, "Thank God," a comment that was met with wide applause. "Those of us in the research arena know that you really haven't seen anything until you've seen it twice," Miller persisted. The WPI work has been confirmed in three labs already.
Below I've reproduced the first note I was sent about this site, which points out that it's possible for people other than CDC personnel to make posts. He writes:
(more…)
16 Comments