NIH Women Describe Sex Harrassment

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - Women at the National Institutes of Health faced sexual intimidation and repeated disregard of their concerns for the welfare of patients in AIDS experiments, according to testimony by two senior female officers and documents gathered by investigators.

One longtime medical officer at the government's premier medical research agency alleges that the harassment and disregard for federal safety regulations are so widespread that employees are now afraid to hold up experiments even if they see a safety problem.
.....
Testimony by Smith and the chief compliance officer for AIDS research, as well as e-mails involving more staffers and several bosses, paint a picture of a sometimes raunchy, profane-language atmosphere inside an agency regarded for its pristine science.

Documents tell of a supervisor sending a red bra to a former female subordinate and of women being hugged or kissed by bosses. In one instance, a supervisor invited a colleague to a West Coast rock concert and suggested they also visit an AIDS clinic there so the trip could be charged to taxpayers.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&ncid=718&e=1&u=/ap/20050410/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/aids_research_safety

[MADem]

1. I know a woman who worked there

...after retiring from the Service, in a pretty good job. She didn't stick it out, she started looking for another job within three months of starting there, and moved on in less than a year. Hmmm.

[rodeodance]

3. thought Bush was going to clean up this kind of behavior!!

[rodeodance]

4. Everyone should send this to your Sen and Rep--just to remind them we

are keeping track of what is going on!

[rodeodance]

5. Larura is worried about voting in Afgan/Iraq-she should pay attention to

things closer at home!!

[rodeodance]

6. Lets email this story and rate it up!

[hector459]

14. I used to work there and it is much worse than you think.

For many feminists, they don't like to hear the sad truth, but many females at NIH have slept their way to the top (and even some males have done this)while well-trained, very bright young men and women have been passed over for promotions and recognition of their work because they were not among the "in" crowd. It's much too much to go into here but all kinds of discrimination are rampant at the NIH. Blacks, muslims, some women, and even some "balkans" are gravely discriminated against. Asians men are not necessarily liked by the brass but they are not discriminated against nearly as much as others. Black women, Asian women, and Hispanic women are really treated poorly.

If there was ever to be a legitimate, honest investigation, you would learn how workamours routinely travel with their bosses at taxpayer expense and feign research business. Many old-timers routinely have planned their annual vacations at tax-payers expense, visiting foreign countries and staying in luxary accomodations under the guise of research business. But for over thirty years, no complaint has ever been honestly investigated and few if, any, have really lost jobs or monoey because of wrong-doing.

[MADem]

17. No wonder my friend left!

She was very professional in her work habits. Also a bit of a stickler for the regs--that environment wouldn't have gone over well with her.

Edit due to horrible typo/spacing!

[dArKeR]

2. Why is Michael Jackson the only one being prosecuted?

I hear testimony that MJ groped someone. I heard many victims say Ah-no groped them. If a independent prosecutor dug into Ah-no's entire life, as they are doing to MJ, and witnesses were compelled to testify, I think we'd hear that Ah-no gropped minors too and had sex with some minors too. Look what happend to Skakel, Stewart, Clinton... and then at what nothing happens to Noele Bush, Druggie Limbutt, Delay, Enron Lay, Ah-no... (and no death penalty for Rudolph.)

[rodeodance]

7. Avg Rating: 3.97, 108 votes

[rodeodance]

8. one ot the supervors excuse is to do a better job at communication!

_Luzar testified that NIH failed for two years to comply with federal regulations and her demand — first made in April 2003 — to update the safety protocol and instruct researchers in the field to consider new warnings to patients in a $36 million AIDS drug trial after new side effects emerged, including suicidal tendencies.

The NIH acknowledged the delay, but said patients were never in jeopardy because doctors were told about side effects as they became known.

"It is clear we can do a better job in our communications within the division and our communications with our investigators," said Lane, the NIH's No. 2 infectious disease official. "We want to see all our processes take place in the quickest possible way, and two years is long time for any process."

_Smith detailed how a NIH supervisor delayed reporting for days the death of a patient in an experiment. The supervisor was "behaving as if she were a pharmaceutical company and did not clearly understand regulatory requirements for such a study," Smith testified.

[rodeodance]

9. no one in this administration is being held accountable for anything!

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10. Avg Rating: 3.98, 116 votes

[rodeodance]

11. they talk of safty violations for patients for the studies NIH is involved

with.



Luzar, the AIDS division's compliance officer, alleged that her bosses frequently sided with the front-line researchers they are financing, rather than with the agency's safety and regulatory experts.

"I think we (safety officials) got in the way, and that we were an impediment to the science," Luzar testified. She described the division managers as "totally unsupportive" of safety concerns and bending to "tremendous pressure" from drug companies and researchers in the name of trying to cure AIDS.

"I think the culture was certainly strong for a period of time that the ends could justify the means," she testified.

Smith said Fishbein was a strong advocate for improving safety for research participants and the effort to fire him is "a warning to other individuals."

[rodeodance]

12. Avg Rating: 4.00, 129 votes keep it going folks

[rodeodance]

13. Avg Rating: 4.02, 141 votes

[hector459]

15. Do you work at NIH?

Just asking.

[fasttense]

16. Isn't this exactly the kind of behavior the repugs and fundies

wanted to protect? You know the ability to not worry about being PC, to speak and act freely based on the inner voice of god, to harass anyone without impunity, to discriminate against anyone you feel like and invoke god's name as the excuse? B*sh would applaud such behavior if he ever bothered to read the report.

[NNN0LHI]

18. Women Inside National Institutes of Health Describe Sex Harassment

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&ncid=716&e=5&u=/ap/20050411/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/aids_research_safety

WASHINGTON - A boss sends a red bra to a former female subordinate who had a falling out with him. Government e-mails distribute profanity and a picture of a partly nude woman. An order to better protect patients in a medical experiment takes two years to complete.


All of that happened inside the National Institutes of Health, the nation's premier medical research agency, according to sworn testimony and other documents obtained by The Associated Press from a variety of sources inside and outside the NIH.


Two senior female officers testified that the NIH workplace is so uncomfortable and intimidating that safety concerns are frequently dismissed and some employees are afraid to speak up. snip


Documents tell of women being hugged or kissed by bosses, or being subjected to catcalls in the hallway. In one instance, a supervisor invited a colleague to a West Coast rock concert and suggested they also visit an AIDS clinic there so the trip could be charged to taxpayers.

more

[Logansquare]

19. The director of the AIDs division must be a nut--look at his business card

Kagan was one of the chief harrassers. I kid you not, this is his official NIH business card:



http://www.honestdoctor.org/documents.html