The Secret

THE END AUTHOR'S NOTE

Although THE SECRET is a work of fiction, the story was inspired by fact. The CIA did carry out a fake anti-polio vaccination programme in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region in their efforts to hunt down Osama Bin Laden. This of course, put many children at risk and damaged trust in genuine aid teams working in the area. At the time of writing, the region is still one of the few areas in the world where polio remains endemic.

In July 2011 the BBC reported a 'Torrent of Abuse' hindering ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome research. They reported harassment of scientists working on the problem including death threats, vilification on internet websites and complaints alleging personal and professional misconduct being made to authorities including the General Medical Council.

The BBC quoted Professor Simon Wessely of King's College London saying, 'It's direct intimidation in the sense of letters, emails, occasional phone calls and threats.’ Professor Wessely went on to say, 'Sadly some of the motivation seems to come from people who believe that any connection with psychiatry is tantamount to saying there is nothing wrong with you, go away, you're not really ill.'

The ME Association's Dr Charles Shepherd condemned the abuse of researchers but said sufferers had a justifiable complaint that almost no government-funded research was looking at the bio-medical aspects of the illness.

Professor Myra McClure of Imperial College London who was subjected to abuse after virologists failed to replicate findings of a reported link to the XMRV retrovirus, was quoted as saying, 'It really was quite staggeringly shocking, and this was from patients who seemed to think I had some vested interest in not finding this virus. I couldn't understand, and still can't to this day, what the logic of that was. Any virologist wants to find a new virus.'

Professor McClure decided not to continue research on the subject.