#ThinkSpeak: alternative facts and multiple sclerosis

Therapeutic nihilism vs. masterly inactivity vs. active treatment: damned if you do damned if you don't! #ThinkSpeak




I haven't done a #ThinkSpeak post for sometime. It is amazing how trends start, evolve and spread like wildfire. The latest trend to hit MS is the 'alternative fact'. Some commentators are actively trying to peddle a different, or alternative, view about MS and its treatments.

'Alternative facts' is the phrase used by Kellyanne Conway, one of Donald Trump's aides, during a Meet the Press interview, in which she defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's incorrect statements about the attendance at Donald Trump's inauguration as President of the United States. The term is clearly very sticky.




There are some people with MS, or not, who think the treatment paradigm that we have been promoting of treating MS early and effectively is wrong. In other words people with MS should just accept their lot in life and get on with it as best they can. We researchers should pack up shop and not try and prevent MS or modify the course of MS. This form of extreme therapeutic nihilism makes neurologists who favour 'watchful waiting' or 'masterly inactivity' look active in their approach to treating MS.

I have embedded my old infographic, which has now been viewed ~2.5 million times, as a reminder of what untreated MS looks like.


CoI: multiple

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