Congressional
Call to Action
To: The Leadership of the U.S. Senate and
The U.S. House of Representatives
From: HonestDoctor.org
Date: December 12, 2004
Recently, a group of concerned NIH employees
presented congressional investigators with
a wealth of documentary evidence pointing
to a pattern of gross scientific and professional
misconduct at the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
and its Division of AIDS (DAIDS)
Some of the charges include: the failure
of senior NIAID management to enforce good
clinical practice in the conduct of human
research, the intentional falsification
of research conclusions, violation of acquisition
regulations, sexual harassment and intimidation
of employees.
Congress must act now to restore
the integrity of our nation’s foremost
biomedical institution. The oversight committees
must be mobilized to hold hearings into
these allegations and propose legislation
that will bring about a thorough reform
of NIAID. Congress must demand new leadership
at NIH, particularly within NIAID.
If these irregularities are not immediately
corrected, the U.S. risks losing its reputation
as the pre-eminent sponsor of objective,
ethical research to combat AIDS. Only Congress
has the authority and the ability to compel
these changes.
For years, a culture of arrogance and
contempt for both laws and regulations has
existed at NIAID. Whistleblowers who have
raised serious questions about scientific
and professional irregularities at NIAID
have found themselves ostracized and persecuted
by a management structure more committed
to self-advancement than the pursuit of
truth. Widespread waste, fraud and abuse
have been tolerated by senior management
even as resources available to fight HIV/AIDS
have been stretched to their limit.
This is not an environment that is conducive
to honest and open scientific enquiry. Nor
is it a setting which will readily attract
the best and brightest of our nation’s
scientists into public service. Indeed,
it is having the opposite effect.
Today, nearly 40 million people worldwide
suffer from HIV/AIDS. Over 1 million of
these reside in the U.S. For the sake of
these individuals and those yet to be stricken
by this horrific disease, it is imperative
that the new 109th Congress move quickly
to restore public confidence in NIAID.
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