Showing posts with label Harvard Medical School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harvard Medical School. Show all posts

January 17, 2016

Harvard University Medical School Teaching Hospital Fires Respected Tenured Urologist For Speaking About Unhealthy Behavior



Dr. Paul Church

Here's a legal remedy. In Massachusetts where the hospital is, state law, MGL Chapter 265, Section 37, the civil rights statute, makes it a felony to intimidate a person in the free exercise of a constitutionally protected right. It applies to public officials and private individuals. The US Congress is considering a new law to protect speech in online comments about goods and services by customers. Currently some vendors punish, actually impose fines under their conditions of service for people who disparage the goods or services. There is a good discussion of this issue broadcast on C-Span at this link. JANUARY 15, 2016 Consumer Freedom of Expression Online. This proposed law may apply to Dr. Church too.  Panelists talked about gag clauses that prevent consumers from posting negative reviews of businesses. US Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) appears after the panel as a audience member. It is about an hour long. 

http://www.c-span.org/video/?403256-1/discussion-consumer-reviews

[From article]
A well-loved and respected doctor with a background in sexual-risk behaviors has been expelled from one of the United States’ most prestigious and top-ranked medical centers after he raised evidence-based health risk concerns over the center’s decision to endorse and celebrate the homosexual lifestyle.



Urologist Dr. Paul Church, a 65-year-old grandfather of 6, was expelled from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, Massachusetts, in March on the grounds that he had violated BIDMC’s “established standards of professional conduct” by using the center’s electronic information system “to communicate your unsolicited views about homosexuality that were offensive to BIDMC staff.”
“The MEC [Medical Executive Committee] has recommended imposition of disciplinary action, in the form of revocation of your appointment to the Medical Staff,” the March 30 letter of expulsion singed by BIDMC President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Kevin Tab stated.
Church called the medical center “so indoctrinated with a worldview” supportive of the LGBTQ agenda that it sees this movement as “beyond reproach,” even to the extent of viewing someone as a bigot and culpable of misconduct charges for raising legitimate criticism about the center’s promotion of this movement and its activities.
[. . .]


Dr. Paul Church with a young girl who he operated on while on a medical mission trip in Mexico.
Courtesy of Dr. Paul Church
Dr. Church, a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty, has worked as a urologist at the center for nearly 30 years, conducting research on prostate and bladder cancer. He has also offered his medical talents to the poor on numerous occasions during volunteer missions to Mexico and Africa.
It was 11 years ago that Church began to experience censorship and suppression from BIDMC officials, reported Mass Resistance. At this time, Church and other like-minded colleagues repeatedly raised concern with officials over the center’s decision to not only endorse the homosexual lifestyle by hosting an annual “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Achievement Award ceremony,” but to involve staff in LGBTQ events including participation in Boston’s annual “Gay Pride Week.”
[. . .]
“The evidence is irrefutable that behaviors common within the homosexual community are unhealthy and high risk for a host of serious medical consequences, including STD's, HIV and AIDS, anal cancer, hepatitis, parasitic intestinal infections, and psychiatric disorders,” Church submitted to officials via the center’s communication system after receiving an LGBT-related communication.
[. . .]
Church called it “all together inappropriate” for BIDMC to “endorse, affirm, or encourage the behaviors ‘celebrated’ by Gay Pride Week.”
“This action again jeopardizes the credibility of BIDMC as a healthcare institution and dishonors a large proportion of its community who continue to hold to the conviction that homosexuality is unnatural and immoral,” he wrote.
When Church realized his submissions were being systemically ignored by officials, he would occasionally post them on the center’s internal electronic messaging board.
[. . .]
In 2007, when Church once again responded to the center’s invitation to attend an LGBTQ-themed event, instead of addressing his concerns, the center’s president at the time, Paul Levy, posted excerpts of the complaint — with no names attached — on his own personal blog.
[. . .]
Levy felt compelled to point out in a response to one comment that Church’s “personal beliefs are not transmitted to patients and do not affect his treatment of patients who come to see him. I felt I should respect his statement, and, indeed, we have received no complaints that would indicate otherwise.”
[. . .]
Church found himself being investigated by the head of his department, Chief of Surgery Dr. Eliot Chaikof, on “harassment” charges on account of his offer to appear in the center’s LGBTQ promo video. Church was told he had “crossed a line” and was either facing suspension or having his staff privileges entirely revoked. He was given the option to voluntarily resign.
[. . .]
“This investigation is also not about whether you agree with my worldview or convictions. What it is about is a fundamental freedom of expression of dissenting ideologies and even more than that, it is about an illogical, inappropriate policy decision on the part of the medical institution that flies in the face of our greater mission of promoting healthy behaviors and lifestyles.”
[. . .]
But instead of siding with Church’s evidence-based concerns, the committee reprimanded him for violating the center’s policy against “harassment and discrimination in the workplace” and for sending what it called “inappropriate content” through the center’s internal electronic messaging board.
“Your opposition to diversity training and to BIDMC’s support for the annual Gay Pride Week events has been expressed in offensive terms and, at times, in a discourteous manner,” the committee stated in its November 2011 letter to Church.
[. . .]
The committee attempted to muzzle Church, warning him that if he did not immediately cease communicating in the workplace his “opinion about sexual orientation, homosexuality or other protected status” his staff privileges would be revoked.
In April 2012, Church requested that BIDMC’s communications department not send him further notices regarding LGBTQ activities. His request was ignored. Between 2013-14 Church continued to receive an ever-increasing number of emails and notices affirmative of the LGBTQ lifestyle.
To one such communication received in 2013 he responded: “Celebrating sexual perversions is highly inappropriate, especially in the context of a medical center that should be aware of the negative health consequences of high risk behaviors. It also ignores and dishonors the religious convictions and moral objections that many members of the hospital community share who are opposed to these behaviors.”
[. . .]
“The data comes from credible sources like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and shows that [skyrocketing rates of sexually transmitted diseases] is primarily a result of men who have sex with men and those who engage in anal intercourse. The latest statistics that CDC has is that men who have sex with men account for two-thirds of new infection of HIV and that they are the only group where syphilis is on the increase.”
“The point is that [homosexual practices and behaviors] are not harmless. There are considerable negative medical consequences [when engaging in these practices],” he said.
[. . .]
“When a hospital tells somebody that you can’t tell the truth about serious health issues because it might hurt somebody’s feelings or that it’s not politically correct, that’s terribly frightening.”
“Health driven by ideology puts people at risk because we’re no longer talking about what is truly healthy, we’re talking about pushing a position that could be totally contrary to good health practices,” he said.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/leading-boston-hospital-fires-doctor-for-raising-concerns-about-health-risk

Thu Jun 25, 2015 - 12:17 pm EST
Leading U.S. hospital fires doctor for raising concerns about health risks of gay sex
Pete Baklinski

https://youtu.be/LbUSAML_U7E

August 25, 2015

Medical Researcher at Harvard University, Leaves Prestigious Position to Get Close To Nature



The Canadian woman landed the Harvard job after she completed a PhD in psychology at Western University.


No shortage of arrogant, narcissistic, ambitious, predatory young men and women who are eager to take her place.

[From article]
A 35-year-old woman who landed her dream job at Harvard University and was at the 'top of her academic game' left her Boston apartment to live in a small cabin near a remote Canadian island.
Bethany Butzer, who was studying the benefits of yoga for children and teens for Harvard, left her job at the university's medical school and went to a 130-square-foot cabin near Manitoulin Island.
Butzer spent the summer living at the log cabin near Willisville, Ontario, which was only accessible by boat, with her husband and she said she was 'actually amazed at how content I became'.
The Canadian woman landed the Harvard job after she completed a PhD in psychology at Western University, but she just wasn't happy with her work or home life, the National Post reported.
The remote cabin is only accessible by boat
She said: 'I felt that my professional success was flourishing but my personal health and well-being were foundering.
'It just didn't really feel satisfying.
'I just knew that I needed to spend some time outside in nature.
'I just took the leap.'
She came to the cabin in the woods with only two bags of clothes after selling nearly all of her possessions and Butzer picked blueberries, dodged bears and watched chipmunks play for hours after she arrived.
Butzer said: 'I would just stare at the trees, watch the sky, go fishing and read.'
She also did a good amount of yoga.
The experience was so positive for Butzer and her husband that they took another risk and moved to Prague in the Czech Republic last week where she will teach psychology at a college and he will work as an artist.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3209634/Bethany-Butze-leaves-Harvard-live-near-Manitoulin-Island-Canada.html

Woman ditches top Harvard job to live in a tiny 130-square-foot cabin only accessed by boat - and says she's never been happier
Bethany Butzer left job at Harvard and went to cabin near Manitoulin Island
Spent the summer living at log cabin near Willisville, Ontario, with husband
She was studying the benefits of yoga for children and teens for Harvard
Butzer picked blueberries, dodged bears and watched chipmunks at play
PhD grad said she was 'actually amazed at how content I became' at cabin
By EVAN BLEIER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 20:26 EST, 24 August 2015 | UPDATED: 21:47 EST, 24 August 2015


April 18, 2015

Updated: TV's Harvard Medical School Graduate Dr. Oz Under Attack By Medical Profession; His Response


Posted April 17, 2015 7:27 PM ET; Last updated April 18, 2015 7:58 PM ET


Embattled TV and Columbia University Physician


[From article]
‘I bring the public information that will help them on their path to be their best selves,’ Oz said in a statement released through a representative of The Dr. Oz Show, according to USA Today.
He continued: ‘We provide multiple points of view, including mine, which is offered without conflict of interest. That doesn't sit well with certain agendas which distort the facts.'


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3044457/Dr-Oz-hits-doctors-campaigning-booted-Columbia-University-faculty-lack-integrity-quack-treatments.html

Dr Oz hits back at doctors campaigning to get him booted from Columbia University faculty because of his 'lack of integrity' and 'quack treatments'
Dr Mehmet Oz is vice chairman at Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons and is a professor of surgery
He said in a statement that his show provides 'multiple points of view', including his, 'which is offered without conflict of interest'
Comes after ten top doctors sent letter to school urging for Oz's dismissal
Said there's no scientific proof his 'miracle' weight-loss supplements work
Columbia said it 'is committed to the principle of academic freedom'
University has not removed TV celebrity doctor from his faculty position
By KELLY MCLAUGHLIN and EVAN BLEIER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 23:35 EST, 17 April 2015 | UPDATED: 08:39 EST, 18 April 2015




* * *


From left to right, Dr Phil McGraw, financial advisor Suze Orman, host Oprah Winfrey, Dr Mehmet Oz and interior designer Nate Berkus participate in The Oprah Winfrey Show live from Radio City Music Hall in 2010.

[From article]
The group of nationally known doctors, in a lacerating letter to his boss, called for the TV doctor’s dismissal from the prestigious post of vice chairman of Columbia University’s department of surgery.
“He’s a quack and a fake and a charlatan,” said Dr. Henry Miller of Stanford, the first person to sign the poison-pen letter.
[. . .]
“I think I know the motivation at Columbia,” he continued. “They’re star-struck, and like having on their faculty the best-known doctor in the country. But the fact is that his advice endangers patients, and this doesn’t seem to faze them. Whether they’re hoping Oprah will come and endow a center for homeopathic medicine, I don't know.”
The one-page letter was also signed by Dr. Gilbert Ross, executive director of the American Council on Science and Health.
[. . .]
The pull-no-punches attack on the surgeon was sent to Dr. Lee Goldman, dean of faculties for Health Sciences and Medicine at the Ivy League school.
“Dr. Oz is guilty of either outrageous conflicts of interest or flawed judgments about what constitutes appropriate medical treatments, or both,” the letter concluded.
“Whatever the nature of his pathology, members of the public are being misled and endangered, which makes Dr. Oz’s presence on the faculty of a prestigious medical institution unacceptable.”
Although his television duties forced Oz to cut back on his hours, he remains a presence at Columbia as a researcher, teacher and physician.
[. . .]
It’s not the first time the 54-year-old Oz has come under fire for his on-air persona. At a Washington appearance in June 2014, a Senate panel blasted Ozfor his endorsement of “miracle” weight loss products that didn’t work.

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/doctors-dr-oz-removed-columbia-faculty-article-1.2187815

'A fake and a charlatan': Doctors call for Dr. Oz to be dismissed from Columbia surgery faculty over alleged quack science
BY LARRY MCSHANE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Thursday, April 16, 2015, 2:29 PM Updated: Friday, April 17, 2015, 4:39 PM

March 18, 2014

Do You Know Who You Are?


Posted March 17, 2014 5:42 PM ET; Updated March 18, 2014 1:20 PM ET

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/son-suspects-welfare-queen-stolen-baby-paul-fronczak/story?id=22913850

Son Suspects ‘Welfare Queen’ May Have Stolen Baby Paul Fronczak
March 14, 2014
By BRIAN ROSS, BARBARA WALTERS, RHONDA SCHWARTZ, JOHN GREEN and ANGELA M. HILL

* * *

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/mailform?id=19906573

Stolen at Birth Tip Line: Who Is Paul Fronczak?
ABC News '20/20' and Barbara Walters Investigate Mystery of Stolen Baby, 50 Years Later

* * *

http://abc.go.com/shows/2020/listing/2020-316-stolen-at-birth-a-decadesold-mystery

20/20
3/16: Stolen at Birth: A Decades-Old Mystery
40:47 03/15/14


This story was broadcast on ABC News' 20/20 hosted by Barbara Walters on March 16, 2014. The man, Paul Fronczak, told his wife, "I don't know who I am. I don't know when or where I was born."

It is a long story of a woman who stole a newborn baby from the arms of his mother in a Chicago hospital. Then years later a baby was abandoned in Newark NJ. The parents whose baby was stolen thought it was their baby and raised him as their own. But when DNA testing was available the test showed that these parents could not be the man's parents. That is what led to the comments to his wife. And you thought you had problems?


Mine are not near as basic. I know where I was born and who my parents were. But sometime in 1970 I met a woman who changed everything else about me. Since then  I've been surrounded by homosexuals, and everyone including the FBI told everyone "He's a homosexual." 43 years later (today) a lesbian graduate student in psychology at Harvard University Medical School, who is protected by Harvard University campus police continues a campaign to try to make me into a homosexual. I am not kidding. It shows how distorted the priorities of government especially law enforcement is in this country.



I am 71 years old. For the past 17 years I've complained to every taxpayer funded public and private agency in Massachusetts (and other states) whose mission is to protect vulnerable persons. They all refuse to investigate the numerous daily felonies committed against me. When I called to other states they asked me why I called them if I lived in Massachusetts. I explained "Because they won't help me here." In case I did not reveal it, one homosexual mogul in Cambridge said to me in February 2014, "You wore out your welcome here." Do homosexuals control who lives in Massachusetts too?

The criminals who conduct the abuses employ lawyers, psychologists and local thugs employed by police and the FBI. They tamper with my landline and my cell phone. My home computer crashes regularly due to their interferences. USPS mail is withheld or not delivered at all.
They keep me under 24/7 surveillance and disturb my sleep every one or two hours every day. They tell everyone I know, knew or meet, "He's crazy." That scares ordinary people away so that the criminals will have free access to conduct their depraved activities. It also permits the human services agencies to ignore me. If a person is crazy what he says can not be relied on. A state police officer at the Massachusetts headquarters told me that. I reminded him that what he said implies that normal people do not lie. State police in Massachusetts protect politicians who are know for being liars, i.e., unreliable. But if they believe a person is crazy they ignore what he says. Even if being crazy is attributed to a person who is exposing criminal behavior by politicians. "He's crazy." is a reliable way to discredit whistleblowers. This happens frequently in  courts when lawyers try to discredit witnesses. "He's crazy." is used to discredit witnesses who harm their client's interest. 

It shows that all it takes are sufficient allegations by criminal psychologists (like the Harvard University graduate student lesbian) that a person is crazy to censor what he says and to deny him First Amendment rights-- the Right To Access to the government,  the Right to Petition the government and the Right to Redress. Psychiatry serves government criminals.  It is the same here as what psychiatrists did in Germany under Hitler and in Russia under Stalin. Journalists maintain the image of psychiatry just as they are conditioned to do.

In addition these same people say, "He's a retired drug dealer." and best of all to silence me, "He's a racist." There are more elements of a 43 year character assassination campaign but those three are enough to make me into a pariah. Who do you believe? 43 years of government character assassination? Or what I try to say in my blog, which one Harvard University lawyer repeatedly told me "No one reads your blog."

August 3, 2013

Cambridge City Council Demands No Job Cuts At Harvard University Medical School




The Cambridge City Council remains focused on matters over which they have no jurisdiction. It continues to ignore egregious corruption that affects every citizen in the City--30 years of homicide and government corruption by James Bulger and his merry band of murderers. The show trial targets one man, who was allowed by the FBI, Boston and other local police, state and US prosecutors, to conduct his violent criminal business for 30 years. No mention of the extensive corruption by the City Council, the state legislature, the governor, any of the the five law schools, and government schools in Boston and Cambridge. The entertaining Cambridge City Council has misguided priorities.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/7/30/city-council-condemns-terminations/#

City Council Rebukes Medical School’s Decision To Cut 31 Custodial Contract Jobs
By MAYA JONAS-SILVER,
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
July 30, 2013

June 10, 2013

Harvard Med School Research Dean Leaves For Big Business Gig



"the Medical School [. . .] announced that due to financial constraints it would close its New England Primate Research Center, which has come under fire for what some have called negligent treatment of animals.";Why is there never any concern about illegal abuses of humans used for medical research without consent at the prestigious medical school? Why are complaints about grad students abusing vulnerable humans always ignored? Why is abuse of human subjects less important than abuse of animal subjects? Why are humans who complain about non consensual human experiments designated mentally ill by prominent medical school professors?

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/6/7/hms-research-dean-departs/#

HMS Research Dean To Depart
William Chin leaves Harvard after three years
By LAYA ANASU and FATIMA MIRZA,
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
June 7, 2013

January 21, 2013

Harvard Prof. Seeks Woman Volunteer To Create Neanderthal Man

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2265402/Wanted-Adventurous-woman-birth-Neanderthal-man--Harvard-professor-seeks-mother-cloned-cave-baby.html

Wanted: 'Adventurous woman' to give birth to Neanderthal man - Harvard
professor seeks mother for cloned cave baby
Professor George Church of Harvard Medical School believes he can
reconstruct Neanderthal DNA
His ambitious plan requires a human volunteer willing to allow the DNA
to be put into stem cells, then a human embryo
By ALLAN HALL and FIONA MACRAE
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 10:36 EST, 20 January 2013 | UPDATED: 21:01 EST, 20 January 2013

September 25, 2012

Child Psychiatrist, Nancy Rappaport, Discusses New Book

Child Psychiatrist Nancy Rappaport (Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School) spoke at the Cambridge Public Library on Monday September 24, 2012.



 http://nancyrappaport.com/

She discussed her new book, The Behavior Code: Practical Strategies for Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students. Rappaport described elaborate schemes to compensate for disruptive behavior in the classroom. She suggested ways for teachers to understand what students may lack and what causes problematic behavior. One parent explained that her child came to US schools from another culture and was thought to be unintelligent because of language and cultural differences. Is there a need for psychiatry to correct this? Another told of a young person new to this country who urinated in the classroom because she did not know how to ask to go to the bathroom. Again, is this a psychiatric issue?



Some questions include, "If teachers are focused on remedying what students lack, e.g., knowing how to behave in class, how can they teach traditional subjects to these students?" "What are psychiatrists doing in schools?" "If students are unable to behave properly how is that a matter for teachers to correct?" They spend too much time on discipline and not enough teaching basics.



"Does the focus on psychiatry in classrooms explain why US schools fail to educate students?" "Does the acceptability of pervasive failure indicate that the ruling class does not care if public school students learn anything?" "Do teachers unions' accumulation of power work contrary to teaching and learning?" Employers and colleges provide extensive remedial classes teaching young people what they failed to learn in secondary schools. Special education is a large profitable taxpayer funded business for the psychiatric industry. Is this an example of what passes for improving schools? More psychiatrists in public schools will only do more harm to the primary function of public schools. Psychiatry has its place but it is not in public schools.

October 12, 2011

Harvard Medical School's Internet Company

[The print edition stated that the cost was "more than $300,000."] Nonetheless this paragraph raises more problematic issues. From where were these Harvard Medical School psychologists working? If they work from their medical school offices they are employed in a for profit endeavor on tax exempt property. Under usual circumstances, i.e., with individuals held accountable for legal transgressions, Harvard Medical School would lose its tax exemption. But in Massachusetts, and especially in Boston and Cambridge where Harvard dominates the economy, laws are optional.

[From article]
"For more than $100,000 for three months, it offers the latest in therapy: interactive Skype group sessions between a Harvard Medical School addiction-treatment psychologist and the pampered patients."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/insidedeluxe_detox_OLpsId036LN91MuUy8z7sJ

Inside deluxe detox
Secret Hamptons rehab for high society
By KIERAN CROWLEY
New York Post
Last Updated: 6:53 AM, September 12, 2011
Posted: 2:20 AM, September 12, 2011

July 21, 2010

Harvard Med School and Drug Companies

[From article]
"Senator Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican and the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, first reported in June 2008 that psychiatrist Joseph Biederman of Harvard-affiliate Massachusetts General Hospital received $1.6 million in consulting and speaking fees from the makers of drugs that he used to treat children for bipolar disorders."

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/7/21/policy-medical-schools-harvard/

Harvard Medical School Restricts Faculty Ties to Industry

New policy designed to curb faculty conflicts of interest with pharma and medical device-making companies

June 11, 2010

Harvard Doctors Busted, Providing Booze to Minors

[From article]
"Boyd, a psychiatrist, said he never saw anyone drinking any alcohol. He acknowledged he may have thought one or two kids were intoxicated, but he couldn't know for sure because he saw no one drinking.

He was surprised when police showed photos, taken after the arrests, with large numbers of beer containers in the yard, he said."

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Harvard+profs+busted+for+Weare+teen+party&articleId=e66df6dd-9b41-4989-b913-4660f1b45dd4

Harvard profs busted for Weare teen party
By MARK HAYWARD AND DAN O'BRIEN
New Hampshire Union Leader
Tuesday, Jun. 8, 2010

January 26, 2010

Harvard Psychiatrist and MGH Liable for Criminal Sanctions?

Do Johnson and Johnson executives and Harvard child psychiatrist Joseph Biederman need to be criminally prosecuted? In deposition, Biederman admitted soliciting J and J for money and a $350 million J and J research center at Mass General Hospital for promoting their antipsychotic Risperdal. Biederman later "tested" Risperdal on little children and put out citations (studies in various manuals) allowing for Medicaid payment for this dangerous antipsychotic for bipolar disorder in children. Medicaid fraud by all three parties and should be criminally and civilly prosecuted by the US Attorney's Office and state Attorney Generals.

The article shows that the Johnson and Johnson Center for Pediatric Psychopathology Research, a center at Massachusetts General Hospital was funded by Johnson and Johnson and headed by Harvard child psychiatrist Joseph Biederman from 2002 to 2005. Court documents show that Johnson and Johnson contributed at least $700,000 for the center.

The article also shows how Biederman was promising study results on Risperdal and Concerta to help promote the drugs. This was before he actually did the "studies." Biederman sounds like he belongs in Washington DC, where the politicians are always helping people, while they enrich themsleves on taxpayer money.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/21/senator_broadens_inquiry_into_psychiatrist/

US Senator broadens inquiry into psychiatrist

Suggests MGH doctor was biased in research




Joseph Biederman,

Harvard Child Psychiatrist 


By Liz Kowalczyk 
Boston  Globe Staff
March 21, 2009

December 7, 2009

Harvard Public Health School Dean Has H1N1


http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/doc_swine_sidelining_Zz2rQPpLplV8IRhqnDxAMM

Doc's swine sidelining
Page Six
Emily Smith
New York Post
Last Updated: 4:00 AM, December 6, 2009
Posted: 11:26 PM, December 5, 2009

October 28, 2009

Is Coffee Poisoning Factual?


The intentional poisoning theory does not make sense. Who would want to harm a medical student? They are altruistic and help people. They save lives. Who opposes that? Perhaps this is imaginary illness, and associative behavior as their colleagues would call it. Have any of these "victims" been in therapy? More importantly if this event really happened, why did the Harvard campus police withhold the facts from the Harvard community and the public for two months? Why have the Boston Police, the state police and Homeland Security been shut out of the investigation? Are they not to be trusted? This may be a terrorist poisoning ring. If a poisoning ring is operating in the Boston area people need to know and so they can take precautions. On the other hand if this is a hoax the perpetrators need to be identified and punished for spreading false rumors. Can Harvard campus police be trusted not to abuse their power? The Commonwealth should investigate the HUPD immediately and thoroughly. Campus police powers are special privileges.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=529788

Poision Victim Alleges Foul Play
Published On Wednesday, October 28, 2009 12:44 AM
By NAVEEN N SRIVATSA
Harvard Crimson Staff Writer
Madoff Suicide Buddy Gave $$ to MIT, Harvard


The Picower Foundation "has doled out millions of dollars to MIT [and] bankrolled diabetes research at Harvard Medical School."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/bernie_buddy_drowns_in_cash_yWZHkgiWau8j0lepklpCiO

Bernie's buddy drowns in cash
Mansion pool death amid $7B Ponzi suit
By JULIE KAY Post Correspondent
New York Post
Last Updated: 9:20 AM, October 26, 2009
Posted: 4:23 AM, October 26, 2009

October 25, 2009

Common Sense Lacking at Harvard Med School?


Each year 90,000 patients die due to medical negligence, some as simple as not washing hands between patients. If professionals are that sloppy what is to be expected of super intelligent Harvard students who seldom have any common sense?

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20091025poisoning_at_harvard_6_lab_workers_sickened_by_coffee/

Poisoning at Harvard
6 lab workers sickened by coffee
By Adam Smith and O’Ryan Johnson
Boston Herald
Sunday, October 25, 2009

* * *

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1207099

Java drinkers detail ordeal
By Adam Smith
Boston Herald
Sunday, October 25, 2009

* * *

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20091026experts_discount_accident_theory_in_harvard_coffee_poisoning/

Experts discount ‘accident’ theory in Harvard coffee poisoning
By Adam Smith and Jessica Van Sack
Boston Herald
Monday, October 26, 2009

* * *

A Message to the HMS Community Regarding the Incident at NRB

As you may be aware, we have been investigating an incident that occurred on August 26, 2009, when six members of our community were seen in the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center emergency room after drinking coffee from the same single serve, manual-fill coffee machine located in an open common area on the eighth floor of the HMS New Research Building (NRB). All reported similar symptoms. Five employees were treated and released that day; one was held overnight and released the next morning.

Since late August, an HMS leadership team has been working closely with Harvard University Police Department and a team of health and safety experts on an extensive investigation of the incident. We also are in contact with the Boston Public Health Commission and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

While we do not yet know how this incident occurred, we have recently learned that sodium azide, a preservative commonly used in laboratories, was present in the coffee consumed by the six employees. As the investigation continues, we are being prudent and taking additional precautionary measures to ensure the well being of our community.

As always, we are mindful of the need to be diligent about laboratory safety and security and the importance of proper management of laboratory chemicals. Last year we convened a task force to make recommendations that will further promote the security and safety of laboratories throughout HMS, and we are now in the process of implementing a number of these recommendations, which include the following:

•Safety professionals will be meeting with laboratory representatives to discuss ways to enhance the best practices already in place throughout HMS for chemical usage and management.

•We are in the process of installing additional security cameras throughout our buildings, and we are strengthening the security systems that manage access to the laboratories during both normal business hours and off hours.

HMS leadership is committed to doing everything possible to understand what may have occurred, and we will notify you at the conclusion of the ongoing investigation. In the interim, if you have any questions or information, please contact Rick Shea at Richard_Shea@hms.harvard.edu.

Sincerely,

Daniel G. Ennis
Executive Dean for Administration

Richard M. Shea
Associate Dean for Physical Planning and Facilities

September 2, 2009

Harvard Med School Backs Off Censorship Policy


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/business/media/02harvard.html?ref=business

Harvard Backs Off Media Policy
By DUFF WILSON
New York Times
Published: September 1, 2009

December 27, 2008

Celebrities, Science and Politics

Celebrities, Science and Politics

One more article about celebrities and science. Again in this article Tom Cruise's criticism of psychiatry is cited as wrong. Still no critical skills by journalists regarding psychiatry. Journalists are as clueless as ordinary people when it comes to being fooled by corporate greed and PR.

Harvard psychiatrist Joseph Biederman (doesn't he look like the Harvard psychiatrist in the Mel Gibson film Conspiracy Theory?) took $1.6 million from drug companies to promote drug treatment. He failed to inform his employers at Mass General Hospital and at Harvard Medical School. For money he signed his name to an article published in medical journals that was written by drug companies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/us/08conflict.html

Researchers Fail to Reveal Full Drug Pay
By GARDINER HARRIS and BENEDICT CAREY
The New York Times
Published: June 8, 2008

This makes the entire apparatus for relying on medical peer review journals suspect. It undermines the entire medical apparatus of approving new treatments. If money determines what treatments are good how reliable are they?

Why are celebrity opinions on science ridiculed when politicians accept their endorsements and their millions to run for office? Without Hollywood celebrities and their money would Barack Obama have won the election? Why are they stupid regarding science but smart about politics? Does money make one intelligent? (I know that rich people think they are smart because they are rich; and that they are rich because they are smart.)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5401129.ece

From The London Times Online
December 27, 2008
Don’t take health tips from celebs if you know what’s good for you
by David Rose

Roy Bercaw - Editor ENOUGH ROOM

December 1, 2008

Harvard Psychiatrist Conflict of Interest

Harvard Psychiatrist Conflict of Interest

Here are 5 articles regarding Harvard psychiatrist Joseph
Biederman and apparent conflicts of interest. He signed his name to
articles that were written by drug companies. He accepted more than $1
million from drug companies, and did not inform his employer Mass
General Hospital, or Harvard Medical School. The first three are from
the NYTimes. The next two are from the Harvard Crimson.

* * * * *

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/opinion/30sun2.html

Editorial
Expert or Shill?
New York Times
Published: November 29, 2008

* * * * *
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/health/25psych.html?fta=y

Research Center Tied to Drug Company
By GARDINER HARRIS
New York Times
Published: November 24, 2008

* * * * *

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/us/08conflict.html?fta=y

Researchers Fail to Reveal Full Drug Pay
By GARDINER HARRIS and BENEDICT CAREY
New York Times
Published: June 8, 2008

* * * * *

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=523895

Harvard Medical School To Reexamine Conflicts of Interest Policy
Reevaluation comes amid allegations of unreported income against three
Harvard psychiatrists
Published On Monday, June 16, 2008 5:17 PM
By JUNE Q. WU
Crimson Staff Writer

* * * * *

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=524031

Summer Happenings at Harvard Medical School
Published On Sunday, September 14, 2008 11:32 PM
By JUNE Q. WU
Crimson Staff Writer

Roy Bercaw - Editor ENOUGH ROOM

July 18, 2007

Only Black Women Have Feelings?

Only Black Women Have Feelings?

This essay raises serious credibility questions. (Madeline Drexler, "How
racism hurts -- literally," Boston Sunday Globe, July 15, 2007) Are black women
different from white men when it comes to reacting to stress? Are black women
different from white men in reacting to discrimination? Are black women's
reaction to racism different from white men's reaction to discrimination based
upon sexual preference? Or disability? Were any studies done on the effects of
discrimination against white men who are accused of psychiatric illness? I don't
think so.
Why does the Globe continue to prioritize one form of discrimination
over others when many kinds of bias are equally unlawful and offensive? The
Globe discriminates in its focus on discrimination. See, e.g., how differently
the Globe reported on outrageous unlawful discrimination in access to health
care for persons with disabilities in Liz Kowalczyk, "Psychiatric patients feel
strain,"
Boston Globe, July 15, 2007.
This essay cherry picks ignoring the income and class of black people. Do
multi millionaire athletes and celebrities get worse medical care than poor
white men? I don't think so.
Most importantly psychiatrists say that you cannot control what another
person thinks or says about you. But you can control how you react to what they
say or do. These anecdotes suggest that black people are incapable of ignoring
what others say and do. Do black people have no control over their emotions and
thoughts?

Roy Bercaw, Editor ENOUGH ROOM

How racism hurts -- literally
Boston Sunday Globe
By Madeline Drexler
July 15, 2007

FOUR YEARS AGO, researchers identified a surprising price for being a black
woman in America. The study of 334 midlife women, published in the journal
Health Psychology, examined links between different kinds of stress and risk
factors for heart disease and stroke. Black women who pointed to racism as a
source of stress in their lives, the researchers found, developed more plaque in
their carotid arteries -- an early sign of heart disease -- than black women who
didn't. The difference was small but important -- making the report the first to
link hardening of the arteries to racial discrimination.

The study was just one in a fast-growing field of research documenting how
racism literally hurts the body. More than 100 studies -- most published since
2000 -- now document the effects of racial discrimination on physical health.
Some link blood pressure to recollected encounters with bigotry. Others record
the cardiovascular reactions of volunteers subjected to racist imagery in a lab.
Forthcoming research will even peek into the workings of the brain during
exposure to racist provocations.

Scientists caution that the research is preliminary, and some of it is quite
controversial, but they say the findings could profoundly change the way we look
at both racism and health. It could unmask racism as a bona fide public health
problem -- just as reframing child abuse and marital violence as public health
concerns transformed the way we thought about these ubiquitous but often secret
sources of suffering. Viewing racial discrimination as a health risk could open
the door to understanding how other climates of chronic mistreatment or fear
seep into the body -- why, for instance, pregnant women in California with
Arabic names were suddenly more likely than any other group to deliver low
birth-weight babies in the six months after 9/11.

Most striking, researchers note, is how consistent the findings have been across
a wide range of studies. The task now, they say, is to discover why.

"We don't know all the internal processes," said James Jackson, director of the
Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. "But we can observe
an effect, and we need to find out what's going on."

The burgeoning research comes at a time when lawmakers and government officials
are increasingly focused on the problem of racial disparities in health.
African-Americans today, despite a half century of economic and social progress
since the civil rights movement, face a higher risk than any other racial group
of dying from heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and hypertension. In the United
States, affluent blacks suffer, on average, more health problems than the
poorest whites. Spurred by statistics like these, dozens of states and cities
have been passing legislation intended to eliminate racial and ethnic
disparities in health.

Boston's Disparities Project, launched in 2005 by Mayor Menino's office and the
Boston Public Health Commission, is one of the most progressive blueprints for
change. It includes partnerships with medical institutions, detailed public
reports tracking progress, and community grants to tackle such entrenched
problems as street violence and lack of access to fresh produce. In May,
lawmakers on Beacon Hill held a hearing on proposed legislation that would
reverse the root causes of health inequities. The bill would establish a state
office of health equity, among other measures.

Critics of the new research tying racism directly to disease have charged that
it is flawed because one cannot objectively measure "racial discrimination." But
the science has grown more sophisticated, allowing investigators to measure
people's experiences with prejudice more precisely. And its proponents argue
that the sheer breadth of the work suggests the conclusions are important. Most
of the investigations have been done in the United States, but a growing body of
literature originates elsewhere -- from Finland and Ireland to South Africa and
New Zealand. These studies have found connections between racism and physical
health in populations ranging from Brazil's African-descended citizens to black
women in the Netherlands who had immigrated from the former Dutch colony of
Suriname.

"Across multiple societies, you're finding similar kinds of relationships," said
David Williams, a sociologist at the Harvard School of Public Health. "There is
a phenomenon here that is quite robust."

For decades, experts have agreed that racial disparities in health spring from
pervasive social and institutional forces. The scientific literature has linked
higher rates of death and disease in American blacks to such "social
determinants" as residential segregation, environmental waste, joblessness,
unsafe housing, targeted marketing of alcohol and cigarettes, and other
inequities.

But the new work draws on a different vein of research. In the early 1980s, Duke
University social psychologist Sherman James, introduced his now-classic "John
Henryism" hypothesis. The name comes from the legendary 19th-century
"steel-driving" railroad worker who competed against a mechanical steam drill
and won -- only to drop dead from what today would probably be diagnosed as a
massive stroke or heart attack. In James's work, people who churn out prodigious
physical and mental effort to cope with chronic life stresses are said to score
high on John Henryism. James showed that blacks with high John Henryism but low
socioeconomic position pay a physical price, with higher rates of blood pressure
and hypertension.

Racism, other research suggests, acts as a classic chronic stressor, setting off
the same physiological train wreck as job strain or marital conflict: higher
blood pressure, elevated heart rate, increases in the stress hormone cortisol,
suppressed immunity. Chronic stress is also known to encourage unhealthy
behaviors, such as smoking and eating too much, that themselves raise the risk
of disease.

In the 1990s, Harvard School of Public Health social epidemiologist Nancy
Krieger pushed the hypothesis further. She confirmed that experiences of
race-based discrimination were associated with higher blood pressure, and that
an internalized response -- not talking to others about the experience or not
taking action against the inequity -- raised blood pressure even more. A
controversial finding at the time, it has since been replicated by other
investigators: The suppressed inner turmoil after a racist encounter can set off
a cascade of ill effects.

Jules Harrell, a Howard University professor of psychology, said he was moved
this spring by a photo of the Rutgers University women's college basketball
team, sitting together with dignified expressions, after radio talk show host
Don Imus had labeled them with a racist epithet.

"The expressions on their faces," said Harrell. "All I could think was, 'Good
God, I'd hate to see their cortisol levels.' "

Collectively, these studies of the racism-health link have tied experiences of
discrimination to poorer self-reported health, smoking, low-birth-weight
deliveries, depressive symptoms, and especially to cardiovascular effects. In
the mid-1980s scientists began to take advantage of the controlled conditions of
the laboratory. When African-American volunteers are hooked up to blood-pressure
monitors, for example, and then exposed to a racially provocative vignette on
tape or TV -- such as a white store clerk calling a black customer a racist
epithet -- the volunteers' blood pressures rise, their heart rates jump, and
they take longer than normal to recover from both reactions. Perhaps, scientists
reasoned, the effort of a lifetime of bracing for such threats prolongs the
effect.

More recently, the lab has moved out into the real world. Several investigations
have linked blood pressure to real-time experiences of stress and discrimination
as recorded in electronic diaries. In one yet-to-be-published study, Elizabeth
Brondolo, a psychologist at St. John's University, found that daytime
experiences of racism led to elevated nighttime blood pressure, suggesting that
the body couldn't turn off its stress response.

Despite these suggestive findings, the field remains beset by unknowns. One of
the biggest problems is that researchers don't share a concrete, agreed-upon
definition of racial discrimination -- partly because such prejudice takes
myriad forms. They also don't know if more exposure to racism produces more
disease or if, instead, disease sets in only after a threshold has been passed.
They don't know if exposures during certain periods of life are more risky than
others. And they don't know why some victims cope better than others.

Skeptics distrust people's own accounts of racial discrimination, because the
experiences can't be objectively documented and because the victim can't always
know the motives of the perpetrator.

"You have to read these studies very carefully and see how they define
'discrimination.' What exactly are they measuring?" said Dr. Sally Satel, a
resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative
think-tank. "Typically, it comes down to an individual's perception of how he
was regarded by another person or by a system -- which is not the same thing as
being unfavorably dealt with on the basis of race."

The field's proponents counter that perception is precisely the issue. Studies
of depression, anger, and post-traumatic stress disorder also rely on the
patient's perceptions of events in their lives, they say -- not on objectively
verified facts. Why should research on discrimination be held to a different
standard?

Researchers have also refined the questionnaires and interview methods they use,
allowing them to tease out the effects of depression or hostility -- mood states
that can encourage a person to see discrimination where it's not. The questions
posed have also grown more subtle and indirect, enabling study participants to
talk openly about experiences they might otherwise deny or minimize.

Methods gauging changes in the body have likewise become more accurate. Stress
researchers have gone beyond such straightforward approaches as taking
blood-pressure readings or asking individuals to rate their own health. Now,
with noninvasive diagnostic equipment, they can look directly at coronary
blockages, levels of stress hormone, and the functioning of the immune system.
These measurements help scientists zero in on the mechanisms by which racial
discrimination may ultimately cause damage.

At the University of California, Los Angeles, psychologist Vickie Mays, director
of the Center on Minority Health Disparities, is taking a futuristic angle on
racism's bodily toll: peering into the brain itself. In a forthcoming study,
Mays will record what happens in the brain's circuits and structures during
laboratory conditions of discrimination and whether people vary in their brain
responses based on their lifelong exposure to racial prejudice.

"We know about [racism's] outcome -- but in many ways we don't know what makes
up the experience of racism," she said. "Is it processing in the part of the
brain responsible for emotions? Or in the part of the brain responsible for
fear?"

Racism remains challenging to explore scientifically, researchers say, partly
because it is difficult to get funding and partly because of institutional
reluctance to take on a potentially polarizing issue. In 2006, Harvard's David
Williams and a colleague submitted a grant proposal to the National Institutes
of Health to study whether perceived ethnic discrimination, coupled with
inequities in medical care, delayed stroke recovery in Latinos. As one reviewer
wrote back, "It is not a good investment of NIH dollars to study racism, because
even if we fund something, there is nothing we can do about it."

It's the kind of remark many scientists in the field have heard. These comments
are frustrating, they say, because they see the research as a crucial first step
toward a more clinical, less charged, discussion of the place of racism in
American society.

"The first step is validating that these effects could be real," said Tené
Lewis, a health psychologist at the Yale School of Public Health. "Once we have
a body of literature, we can say: 'OK, can we please talk about this?' "

Boston-based journalist and author Madeline Drexler, a former Globe Magazine
medical columnist, holds a visiting appointment at the Harvard School of Public
Health.