Harvard

MIT – An immunologist who pleaded guilty to grant fraud in court has avoided jail after several prominent scientists wrote letters begging for clemency on his behalf. His sentence of home detention, community service and financial restitution, finalized on 15 June, suggests that coming clean promptly can be a good strategy for those who have committed scientific misconduct. (more…)

7 Jan | PBS – Antipsychotics are the top-selling class of drugs in the United States, with sales of $14.6 billion in 2009 alone. Their use in children and adolescents in the United States is increasingly prevalent (more…)

25 Dec/AHRP – Between 1978 and 1999, 2.5 million American men, women and children died preventable deaths in US hospitals and 17 million suffered preventable injuries.  Two recent reports confirm that American hospitals continue to cause (more…)

5 Oct – Wash DC – Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius apologized for virologists who deliberately infected hundreds of men and women with syphilis and gonorrhea during Tuskegee-like experiments conducted in Guatemala between 1946-1948.  (more…)

(English) – El año pasado, OMSJ identificó el medicamento contra el VIH Sustiva (Efavirenz) como algo más que un anti-retroviral (ARV), como un placebo altamente adictivo, que cuando se interrumpe su consumo, produce síntomas de abstinencia, que los clínicos de SIDA usaran rutinariamente para diagnosticar mal la aparición del SIDA.  (more…)

(Español) Last year, OMSJ identified the HIV drug Sustiva (Efavirenz) as little more than a highly addictive anti-retroviral (ARV) placebo that, when interrupted, produces withdrawal symptoms that AIDS clinicians routinely use to misdiagnose the onset of AIDS. (more…)

4 Aug | Al Jazeera – The US healthcare industry is the world’s biggest, with $300 billion per year spent on prescription drugs.  For many these drugs have brought undeniable benefits.  But recent months have seen health scandal after health scandal making headlines in the US. (more…)

4 Aug | Al Jazeera – The US healthcare industry is the world’s biggest, with $300 billion per year spent on prescription drugs.  For many, these drugs have brought undeniable benefits.  But recent months have seen health scandal after health scandal making headlines in the US. (more…)

18 July – If you’re like most Americans, you had probably never heard of Donald Berwick before July 7, when President Obama installed him as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).   And, unless you’re a health policy wonk, the news that Obama circumvented the normal Senate confirmation process with a recess appointment (more…)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People have about the same risk of having suicidal thoughts or attempting suicide when starting out on antidepressants no matter what type of pill they’re prescribed, new research shows.  “There is no meaningful difference between these agents,” Dr. Sebastian Schneeweiss of Brigham (more…)

Anthony Fauci MD has been the NIAID Director since 1984, when Robert Gallo alleged that HIV caused of AIDS. During the next 25 years, Fauci has granted himself 62 of 81 grants; and yet, NIAID still only believes that HIV causes AIDS. (more…)

When you’re in a hole, STOP DIGGING!

It’s hard to remember a movie that has stirred as much controversy as the documentary, House of Numbers. Ever since its debut at the Nashville Film Festival last April, Brent Leung’s film school project has left audiences stunned and AIDS researchers and activists around the world concerned that their house of numbers will soon collapse. (more…)

In the play Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, con-artist Lawrence Jameson has made a career out of tricking emotionally-vulnerable women out of their money. One day while riding a train near the French Riviera, Jameson watches as Freddy Benson clumsily charms a small prize from a woman he has flattered. Somewhat impressed, Jameson takes Freddy under his wing and (more…)

In the play Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, con-artist Lawrence Jameson has made a career out of tricking emotionally-vulnerable women out of their money. One day while riding a train near the French Riviera, Jameson watches as Freddy Benson clumsily charms a small prize from a woman he has flattered. Somewhat impressed, Jameson takes Freddy under his wing and (more…)

PharmaSlut: Any individual or organization that directly OR indirectly; a) receives funding from pharmaceutical companies AND; b) uses medical or scientific diplomas, political influence, governmental or academic positions, to c) promote the marketing, sales, distribution or delivery of drugs to d) clinicians, physicians or patients.   (Journalist Shannon Brownlee calls them drug whores (page 218).) (more…)

Johnson Tagarisa grew up during the 1970s when his cousins, brothers and uncles worked in the mines of South Africa.  Upon return to their native Zimbabwe, they spoke often of their experiences.  By the time that people were starting to “die from AIDS in South Africa,” Johnson was old enough and educated enough to connect the dots.  Even when his stepbrother died in 1993, Johnson argued with the doctor that he had died of syphilis because he had (more…)

The patient was an 8-year-old California girl with severe headaches. Her parents, who were both struggling to adjust to new high-pressure jobs, took her to top neurologists and pediatricians. The child’s symptoms, the doctors concluded, were a response to stress at home, along with perhaps a sinus condition. But four or five months later, it became clear that she had a brain tumor and needed surgery. When her doctors looked back at early scans of her brain, they were aghast to see the shadow of a tumor they had previously overlooked. (more…)