Professor David Taggart Responds to the EXCEL Authors’ Rebuttal of the Criticisms of the EXCEL Trial

In the ongoing debate about the results of the EXCEL trial in which Professor Taggart withdrew his authorship and EACTS withdrew their support for the recommendations regarding PCI versus CABG, we previously posted the response from the EXCEL remaining coauthors : 
https://www.tctmd.com/slide/official-response-excel-leadership
This posting is Professor Taggart’s response to this document.
Also see here for EACTS response: 
https://www.eacts.org/changing-evidence-changing-practice/
A full list of all the documents relevant to this discussion provided by the SCTS will also be available on the SCTS website. As more information becomes available, SCTS will endeavour to post it online and communicate with members directly, as appropriate. Please use the following link for items that are included as separate PDFs. Thank you. (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9bq984evzqzkky5/AAAGTLyNYcUCiagA4dYkJ8Npa?dl=0)

EXCEL trial (8th December 2016)https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1610227
EXCEL trial 5-year outcomes (28th September 2019)  https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1909406https://solaci.org/_files/tct-2019/excel-5yearpdf.pdf
TCTMD commentary (7th October 2019)https://www.tctmd.com/news/former-excel-investigator-alleges-trial-manipulation-prompting-vehement-denials
BBC news story (9th December 2019)https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-50715156
EACTS initial response to Newsnight article (9th December 2019)https://www.eacts.org/eacts-responds-to-bbc-newsnights-investigation-on-the-excel-trial/
Cardiovascular news commentary (9th December 2019)https://cardiovascularnews.com/eacts-issues-response-to-bbc-newsnight-investigation-of-excel-trial/
TCTMD commentary (10th December 2019)https://www.tctmd.com/news/eacts-pulls-out-left-main-guidelines-after-bbc-bombshell-alleging-excel-trial-cover
British Cardiovascular Intervention Society (BCIS) statement (11th December 2019)https://www.bcis.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/The-Excel-controversy-finalab.pdf
Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain & Ireland (SCTS) joint statement with BCS & BCIS  (12th December 2019)
Official response of EXCEL Leadership (12th December 2019)https://www.tctmd.com/slide/official-response-excel-leadership
Medscape commentary & podcast (13th December 2019)https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/922528
SCTS second statement (18th December 2019)
Taggart response to EXCEL rebuttal (19th December 2019)https://www.tctmd.com/slide/response-david-taggart-md-phd-excel-statement
EACTS subsequent statement (19th December 2019)https://www.eacts.org/changing-evidence-changing-practice/
ATTS statement (21st December 2019)https://www.aats.org/aatsimis/AATSWeb/Association/About/Statement%20ESC-EACTS.aspx