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ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP) http://www.ahrp.org
Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav Tel: 212-595-8974 e-mail: veracare@no-spam
FYI
The Washington Times reports that three researchers from the
University of Maryland, department of pediatrics admitted faking
data that gave high marks to reduced incidence of HIV in teenagers
counseled about "safe sex" in an enhanced widely used school program.
The study involved 861 African American teenagers (aged 12 to 16)
living in Baltimore housing projects. The study was published in
the journal Pediatrics--yet the journal still hasn't retracted the
fake findings.
Taxpayers were defrauded over $1 million. Even more disturbing than
the breach of research integrity by the individual researchers
involved, is the absence of institutional oversight or accountability
for millions of taxpayer dollars spent on dubious and even fraudulent
research. Officials at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) who
funded the study and officials of the Office of Research Integrity
who are paid to ferret out research fraud, exhibit arrogance when
they won't even deign to comment!
Congressman Mark Souder is right when he said:
"This scandal underscores the need for oversight of all federal
programs -- even NIH -- to ensure taxpayer dollars are not misspent
and science is not manipulated."
The Washington Times www.washingtontimes.com
Researchers fake AIDS study data By Robert Stacy McCain THE WASHINGTON
TIMES Published December 5, 2003
Three Maryland researchers have admitted fabricating interviews
with teenagers for a study on AIDS prevention that received more
than $1 million in federal funds.
Lajuane Woodard, Sheila Blackwell and Khalilah Creek were employed
by the University of Maryland at Baltimore's department of pediatrics
as researchers on the study, funded by a grant from the National
Institutes of Health (NIH).
The three admitted they made up interviews with teenagers, which
they had claimed took place from May to August 2001, for the study
on preventing the transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
The fabrication was first reported in the journal Research USA.
The study was designed to evaluate the impact of "safe sex" counseling
on black teens in Baltimore housing developments. Congressional
staffers said the study, titled "Effectiveness of Standard Versus
Embellished HIV Prevention," received more than $1 million in NIH
funds in 1999.
"It is terribly troubling that federally funded research on a topic
as sensitive and important as HIV prevention for children, some as
young as 13, would be intentionally manipulated," said Rep. Mark
Souder, Indiana Republican and chairman of the House subcommittee
on criminal justice, drug policy and human resources. "If not caught,
the lives of countless children may have been put at risk by
ineffective, perhaps dangerous, prevention messages developed from
this fabricated research."
Results of the Baltimore study were published in January in the
journal Pediatrics by a group of nine researchers led by Ying Wu
of West Virginia University.
The study's objective was to determine whether enhancing an existing
AIDS prevention program called Focus on Kids by adding "parental
monitoring"
would have an effect on the children involved.
Editors of Pediatrics said yesterday they were investigating the
reported fabrications.
The study involved "817 black youths aged 12 to 16 years," and found
that youth whose families participated in the enhanced Focus on
Kids program showed "significantly lower rates" for a variety of
risk behaviors, including sex without condoms and use of cigarettes
and alcohol.
The Focus on Kids program is a widely used "safe sex" curriculum
advertised by its publisher, ETR Associates, as "proven effective."
"We would not comment on this," said Constance Burr, spokeswoman
for the National Institute for Mental Health, the NIH division which
funded the study. Officials at the Office of Research Integrity had
no response to the report.
In the past year, House Republicans have repeatedly criticized NIH
funding of sex research projects, including a $147,000 grant to a
Northwestern University professor who paid women to watch pornography
while measuring their sexual arousal.
In July, the House rejected on a 212-210 vote a measure sponsored
by Rep. Patrick J. Toomey, Pennsylvania Republican, that would have
eliminated federal funding for five sex studies.
But investigation of federally funded sex research has come under
fire by critics, including Rep. Henry A. Waxman, California Democrat.
In October, responding to a list of research grants questioned by
some House Republicans, Mr. Waxman wrote to Health and Human Services
Secretary Tommy G. Thompson: "I urge you in the strongest possible
terms to denounce this scientific McCarthyism. Imposing ideological
shackles on this research would be a serious public health mistake."
More recently, the New England Journal of Medicine denounced
congressional probes of research grants. Such scrutiny risks turning
sex research into a "political football," warned the journal's
editor, Dr.
Jeffrey Drazen.
"Science should have oversight from Congress but it ought not to
be at the level of specific grants," Dr. Drazen told United Press
International.
But Mr. Souder said the admissions of fabrication in the Baltimore
HIV study show the importance of congressional oversight.
"This scandal underscores the need for oversight of all federal
programs -- even NIH -- to ensure taxpayer dollars are not misspent
and science is not manipulated," the congressman said.
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