I did not imply the treatment had no benefit. I stated that one third got better, one third had no change, and one third got worse. This is not a good result - a third of the participants got worse.

In addition, 13% of the participants on the trial had already recovered before the trail began, but were not excluded.

Finally, the thresholds for being “recovered” demonstrated worse health than the scores required in the first place to demonstrate the severe disability needed to enter the trial. This anomaly meant that some participants could get worse on physical function and fatigue during the trial and still be included in the results as being “recovered.”

“I’m shocked that the Lancet published it,” said Ronald Davis, a well-known geneticist at Stanford University and the director of the scientific advisory board of the Open Medicine Foundation.

“The PACE study has so many flaws and there are so many questions you’d want to ask about it that I don’t understand how it got through any kind of peer review”, added Davis.