Swamp Musings

An example of your NIH funding at work. Since AIDS (voluntarily contracted disease) research is a lefty holy grail, one would expect a lot of noise about this in the MSM. I must have missed it.

Flawed AIDS Drug Study Exposes NIH Misconduct

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

By Jonathan M. Fishbein

Until recently, I was the Director of the Office of Policy in Clinical Research Operations at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease Division of AIDS. In that capacity, I was responsible for ensuring the integrity of government-funded AIDS drug trials by insisting upon good clinical practice and the rigorous oversight of all AIDS-related field work.

It was an impossible task. At every turn I found my efforts frustrated by a management system guided more by politics than by sound science. Nepotism and bureaucratic intrigue permeate DAIDS. Scientists are pressured to produce results at the expense of regulations whose purpose is to protect the safety, rights and welfare of study subjects, not to mention the preservation of scientific integrity.

For seven months, I learned of numerous instances of scientific and professional misconduct at DAIDS. I brought some of these to the attention of my supervisor as I am required to do by law. My vigilance was rewarded with a notice of termination and slander against my good name and reputation. Frustrated, I decided to step forward as a whistleblower in the hope that public exposure would bring about the needed change. That has yet to happen. Instead, NIH has worked fervently to suppress my allegations and delegitimize my credibility. They will not succeed.

(snip)

Read the whole article.