] Re: Fw: Press Release from the Netherlands: FDA and NIH confirm ‘XMRV findings’

[Guest guest]

I was only joking and riffing, about them needing to release it within X days in

order to satisfy my personal wishes. But this is TOTAL bullshit:

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In an email between scientists familiar with the situation, viewed by the Wall

Street Journal, a researcher said the two teams were asked to put their papers

on hold because senior public-health officials wanted to see consensus—or at

least an explanation of how and why the papers reached different conclusions,

said the people familiar with the situation.

A spokesman for Department of Health and Human Services said the research was

being reviewed. " All of these activities need to be completed in order to ensure

HHS's commitment to the accuracy and relevancy of the scientific information it

reports.''

[...]

Publication of results is considered a critical part of the scientific process,

and researchers familiar with the situation said they were puzzled by the move.

It is unusual for a paper to be held after it has already gone through the

formal peer-review process and been accepted for publication, say scientists who

publish frequently.

" It's fair to say it's not a usual kind of thing, " said M. Coffin, a

special adviser to the National Cancer Institute and a professor at Tufts

University in Boston who wrote an editorial alongside the Science report in

October. Dr. Coffin said he couldn't comment specifically on the XMRV papers,

but that scientists often come up with conflicting data, especially when a virus

is new and not well understood as is the case of XMRV.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703374104575337160225739290.html