Petition presented to Cochrane with a renewed call for withdrawal on the basis of harms 

On 17th March 2024, the Science for ME committee wrote to 
Jordi Pardo Pardo - Interim Chair of the Cochrane Governing Board
Karla Soares-Weisser, Cochrane Editor in Chief
Vanessa Jordan, Chair - Cochrane's Conflict of Interest Committee

 

We marked the fact that it's 6 months since we first wrote to Cochrane and no action has been taken on our requests, and no progress has been made on the new review.

We formally presented the petition to Cochrane and encourage them to read the comments on it. We also listed the 70 organisations that signed in support. 

We asked that the 2019 Larun review be urgently withdrawn, on the grounds of harm.

 

We gave 10 reasons for the review to be withdrawn, under these headings:

1. Withdrawal of the review is in line with Cochrane's editorial policy

2. Cochrane's guidance to reviewers has not been followed

3.The 2019 review failed to properly consider evidence of harms.

4. Patients' perceptions of harm should be considered as relevant as patients' perceptions of improvement

5. The harms are considerable

6. New evidence of harms supports withdrawal

7. Two conflicting paradigms

8. The harms include effects on patients’ mental health

9. Biases and conflicts of interest of advisors to the review

10. The NICE approach to harms evidence, and the pushback from GET supporters

The letter concluded:

"Cochrane editors, in going along with the recommendation of exercise therapy on the basis of short term subjective outcomes on unblinded trials, with multiple flaws as spelled out by Tack in 2020, do a disservice to people with ME/CFS and to science. That Larun et al, advised by people with serious conflicts of interest, failed to investigate the validity of harms data in the PACE trial, and failed to follow Cochrane's guidance on seeking wider evidence of adverse events, makes the review unsafe.

We therefore conclude by repeating our request that Cochrane follow its own editorial policy on withdrawing reviews on the basis that:

Following the conclusions of the published review could result in harm to patients or populations of interest.

We trust you will give urgent attention to this serious matter and reach a rapid decision in line with Cochrane's own policy and charitable purpose and in the interests of patient welfare and sound science."

 

*******************

With thanks to all our supporters, the campaign continues.