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HMA Reaches Goal! Government Accounting Office will Investigate CDC policy allowing corporate takeover of diseases.

CDC Goals For HCV-.....The goals of hepatitis C prevention and control efforts are:
1) to reduce the incidence of new infections by reducing HCV transmission;

 

Book Mark This page- it will be continually updated as developments occur. (Last update 03/01/2008)

Public health is generally defined as “what we as a society do collectively to assure the conditions for people to be healthy” (Baxter 2001).

The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trusts, bestowed for the good of the country and not for the benefit of an individual.
(John C. Calhoun)

November 5, 2006


Washington, DC- The Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) finance office is under investigation for inefficiency and ineffective leadership. A bureaucratic shuffle within the CDC has prompted a political firestorm among experts in worker health and safety and has reignited questions about the Bush administration's commitment to sound science.

As of 2004- Dr. James Hughes, director, Center for Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Harold Margolis, chief of the viral hepatitis division for 17 years, left the CDC, citing, "all-consuming reorganization" and shift away from science based programs. CDC employees also complain a political verses science based influences has played a part in the drafting of reorganization plans. In all, 6 of the 8 department heads have resigned.

As part of its public health oversight responsibilities, the Committee on Energy and Commerce monitors the management of the CDC. In response to concerns, the Committee requested that the CDC provide certain info certain information by November 6, 2006. The Committee’s oversight interest is to ensure that the CDC is effectively managing its financial resources and its reorganization.

Hepatitis C Activists responded to the request, asking the committee to please examine the reduction in Hepatitis C services as a result of reorganization and a possible conflict of the fiduciary responsibility to the American public and the military. Pointing out the CDC's lack of accountability for handling of the HCV epidemic is worthy of an oversight investigation. 

By late Friday (Dec 1,2006), Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Committee, said he will ask the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress (GAO), to examine the CDC's contracting procedures.

June 2007

The Coburn Report- Congress Responds
 

Tom Coburn, M.D.
United States Senator

Click here to read the report

Former Surgeon General Richard Carmona speaks out,  accusing the Bush administration of pressuring him to support a political agenda over a scientific one...assistant HHS secretaries and top political appointees outside the department...Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said the Bush administration routinely blocked him from speaking out or issuing reports...other sensitive public health issues while he was serving in the position.

New CDC retaliated against scientist "The agency's conduct has called into question its ability to investigate public health hazards accurately and appropriately in the future," wrote the chairman and two subcommittee chairmen from the House Committee on Science and Technology in a letter Wednesday to Gerberding.

HHS Inspector General to Reopen NIH Conflict-of-Interest Cases WASHINGTON - ...informed the Energy and Commerce Committee that his office is reopening 103 conflict-of-interest cases involving National Institutes of Health researchers. In 2003, committee staff identified a sample of 81 individual scientists hired by drug companies between 1999 and 2004 whose consulting agreements were not listed in information NIH provided to the committee.

NIH- A panel of senior NIH officials will direct the review -including management of grants, human resources and ethics programs. "Congress and others have raised important questions and concerns over the past few months, and we will be fully responsive," NIH head Elias Zerhouni said in a statement. "It is critical that this review be done in a fair, comprehensive and independent manner."

Read More: 

• Time Line of Events: ...the departure of dozens of its most respected scientists, concerns about political interference and a pending budget cut of nearly $500 million...critics describe it as a kind of Alice in Wonderland environment where the CDC director is like the Queen of Hearts," the senior official said. "You know, 'Off with their heads.' It's a very autocratic and unpredictable environment."
   

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• The Trail: Marcia Angell, ... stepped down as editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, worries about the effect the coalitions could have on people's faith in public-health campaigns.  Schering's role "underscores for me the fact that drug companies cannot be in education," she said. "They can't because it's a conflict. Their primary mission is to increase the bottom line for shareholders."
   

  Doctors Reap Millions for Injection Drugs ...a group of six cancer doctors received $2.7 million...prescribing $9 million worth of its drugs last year...The deal was so good, he said. The indication was so clear and the downside was so small that docs just worked it into their practice easily..." The editorial concludes..."Federal laws already bar drug companies from paying doctors to prescribe medicines in pill form. That prohibition should be extended to injected and intravenous medicines"  New Charities Tied to Doctors Get Drug Industry Gifts set up tax-exempt charities into which drug companies and medical device makers are, with little fanfare, pouring donations - money that adds up to millions of dollars a year. And some medical experts see that as a big problem. New Drug Firms' Control of Data Troubling: Lancet Report By Doug Macron NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Drug firms... largest sponsors of medical research... companies' enormous control over when, where and how that data is reported Education Grants Given By Drug Companies Growing, US Senate Finance Committee Investigation Indicates 23 pharmaceutical companies in 2004 spent a combined $1.47 billion on educational grants, a 20% increase from 2003. Secret Negotiations-  ... Is the pubic really pushing for this vaccine, or is the government eager to use a product that it just purchased for nearly $1 billion? AASLD Response to Media Report on Hepatitis C Virus "Cure" The AASLD believes that this message was erroneously implied...

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• The Public Response: CDC "Reorganization" has really meant privatizing an agency established to protect public's interest.
   
• Lawmakers at Hearing Question CDC's Gerberding About Disease Prevention Budget ...lawmakers also criticized Gerberding for morale problems at CDC and for reports of large bonuses paid to agency officials. Gerberding acknowledged that CDC has about 800 staff vacancies and has experienced problems with recruitment ...
   

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• The Crimes: The circumstances described in that risk analysis — which CDC officials now seek to discredit as merely "conjecture" — raise questions about serious and potentially criminal violations of federal procurement law, according to government contract experts.
   
• Former CDC Directors Raise Concerns About Future of Agency  Koplan agreed, citing the need for CDC to maintain "public trust in scientific integrity at a time when there is a perception of political ideology intruding into public health decisions and public health policy."
  
   

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• Falsifying Data to Meet Corporate Need CDC fakes data for corporate takeover of Hepatitis C funding:..
   
• Politics to trump science in its efforts to combat" HIV/AIDS  U.S. epidemiologist James Chin in his book, "The AIDS Pandemic," accused UNAIDS of inflating HIV prevalence estimates to "dramatize the epidemic" and increase donor funding.
   
• New Daniel Halperin- HIV Prevention Adviser
  Putting a Plague in Perspective- United States, the world’s largest donor, to re-examine the epidemiological and moral foundations of its global health priorities
   
• U.N. to Cut Estimate Of AIDS Epidemic Population With Virus Overstated by Millions "There was a tendency toward alarmism, and that fit perhaps a certain fundraising agenda"
   
• CDC overestimates cases of HIV/AIDS
  The facts do not support the erroneous inference that the heterosexual population and children are at risk from this disease.
   
• HCV And HBV Spreading More Slowly Among Injection Drug Users In San Francisco Since 1998 now a longer window of opportunity for interventions among this at-risk population.
   
• HEPATITIS C: SILENT EPIDEMIC, MUTE PUBLIC HEALTH RESPONSE Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, Liver and Biliary Diseases Strategic Plan,'' March 1998 (in subcommittee files). It is noteworthy that the National Institute on Drug Abuse [NIDA] spent the most NIH resources and continues to spend the most resources on HCV research, which may reflect an institutional bias within HHS that HCV is a disease of injection drug users. This bias may have worked against early recognition of HCV as a broader public health problem.
   

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• History of Foundations: The Billions of Dollars That Made Things Worse The mega-foundations should repress their yearning for activism once and for all. The glories of early twentieth-century philanthropy were produced by working within accepted notions of social improvement, not against them.....Philanthropic foundations once used their vast might to cure disease, promote art, and advance education. In the sixties, they decided to reform society. Result: catastrophe.
   
• A Bait-and-Switch Charity - The Scandalous History of the Red Cross-Charity Navigator gives the Red Cross a Five Star Rating - yet the history of this corporatized organization tells a story of unparalleled corruption. ...The leading administrators and officials of the Red Cross are almost always drawn from the corporate boardroom or the military high command. Among the past chairs and presidents of the Red Cross are seven former generals or admirals and one ex-president.
   
•  New Red Cross penalties more than $19 million in recent years The Food and Drug Administration has fined the Red Cross an additional $4.6 million for the distribution of "unsuitable blood products," bringing penalties against the organization to more than $19 million in recent years.
   
• Why Does CDC Need a Foundation? Guess who funds the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable (NVHR)?

• Read NVHR Agenda NVHR should engage a lobbyist to work on its behalf in Washington. Mmmm, could it be Wexler and Wexler????

The Scientific Community Speaks

• New PUBLIC SAFETY PERSONNEL: Benefits report shocks officials Aug 2, 2005 LAS VEGAS Local cities facing estimated $2.8 billion liability over next 30 years- State laws requiring compensation for public safety workers who develop ...hepatitis C have local governments scrambling to identify how to pay for what is expected to be a multibillion-dollar liability over the next 30 years.
   
• Evidence of political interference- 10,000 Scientist Speak Out- In 2004, 62 renowned scientists and science advisors signed a statement on scientific integrity, denouncing political interference in science and calling for reform. On December 9, 2006, UCS released the names of more than 10,000 scientists of all backgrounds from all 50 states—including 52 Nobel Laureates—who have since joined their colleagues on this statement.
   
• Scientific Review of the Proposed Risk Assessment Bulletin from the Office of Management and Budget This ignores a fundamental public health goal to control exposures well before they cause functional impairment.....Also, OMB's definition of risk assessment is too broad and in conflict with long-established concepts and practices.
   
• New Guidance Documents- Under the new White House policy, any guidance document expected to have an economic effect of $100 million a year or more must be posted on the Internet, and agencies must invite public comment, except in emergencies in which the White House grants an exemption.
  In theory, guidance documents do not have the force of law. But the White House said the documents needed closer scrutiny because they "can have coercive effects" and "can impose significant costs" on the public. "The executive order will ensure they are issued in the sunshine, with more opportunity for public comment."

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More: We're not alone fighting disease and government for financial funding accountability.

• History of CDC Mismanagement of It's Financial Resources
   
• GAO Investigation Called - Probe Targets DHHS Agencies

S.1 - A bill to provide greater transparency in earmarking and the legislative process S. 1 - A bill to provide greater transparency in the legislative process/Honest Leadership and Open Government Act- requires earmarks included in bills and conference reports, and their sponsors, be identified on the Internet at least 48 hours before Senate votes;