Researcher Charged in Major HIV Vaccine Fraud Case

What is find seriously disquieting is not this particular example which is clearly bad enough, bu. that a culture of fraudulent research has sprung up around the whole vaccine business. This unfortunately makes way to much sense. If the vaccine is useless, then there is no egregious harm in selling it. Thus the rationalization to cook the books.

And of course if your competitor is doing it, so will you.

The HIV vaccine claim made scant sense when it was made and not taken too seriously at the time either. I know that I dismissed it and I am hardly an industry insider. That it was not even an experimental mistake is disappointing. That it succeeded in promoting research funds is enough cause for these charges.

Researcher Charged in Major HIV Vaccine Fraud Case

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Jun 24, 2014, 5:09 PM ET

By RYAN J. FOLEY Associated Press

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/researcher-charged-major-hiv-vaccine-fraud-case-24288252?singlePage=true

Responding to a major case of research misconduct, federal prosecutors have taken the rare step of filing charges against a scientist after he admitted falsifying data that led to millions in grants and hopes of a breakthrough in AIDS vaccine research.

Investigators say former Iowa State University laboratory manager Dong-Pyou Han has confessed to spiking samples of rabbit blood with human antibodies to make an experimental HIV vaccine appear to have great promise. After years of work and millions in National Institutes of Health grants, another laboratory uncovered irregularities that suggested the results — once hailed as groundbreaking — were bogus.

Han was indicted last week on four counts of making false statements, each of which carries up to five years in prison. He was set to be arraigned Tuesday in Des Moines, but he didn't show up due to an apparent paperwork mix-up. A prosecutor said Han will be given another chance to appear next week.

Han, 57, didn't return a message left at his home in Cleveland, where he's been living since resigning from the university last fall. A native of South Korea, he surrendered his passport following his arrest and initial court appearance in Ohio last week.

Experts said the fraud was extraordinary and that charges are rarely brought in such cases. The National Institutes of Health said it's reviewing what impact the case has had on the research it funds.

"It's an important case because it is extremely rare for scientists found to have committed fraud to be held accountable by the actual criminal justice system," said Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch, which tracks research misconduct.

Oransky, a journalist who also has a medical degree, said there have been only a handful of similar prosecutions in the last 30 years.

He said Han's case was "particularly brazen" and noted that charges are rarely brought because the U.S. Office of Research Integrity, which investigates misconduct, doesn't have prosecution authority, and most cases involve smaller amounts of money.

"It's a pretty extraordinary case involving clear, intentional falsification," added Mike Carome, a consumer advocate and director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group. "The wool was pulled over many people's eyes."

Carome noted that Han's misconduct wasted tax dollars and caused researchers to chase a false lead. He said such cases also undermine the public's trust in researchers.

Finding an HIV vaccine remains a top international scientific priority. A 2009 study in Thailand is the only one ever to show a modest success, protecting about a third of recipients against infection. That's not good enough for general use, so researchers continue exploring numerous approaches.

According to the indictment, Han's misconduct caused colleagues to make false statements in a federal grant application and progress reports to NIH.

The NIH paid out $5 million under that grant as of earlier this month. Iowa State has agreed to pay back NIH nearly $500,000 for the cost of Han's salary.

Han's misconduct dates to when he worked at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland under Michael Cho, who was leading a team testing an experimental HIV vaccine on rabbits.

Starting in 2008, Cho's team received initial NIH funding for the work. Cho reported soon that his vaccine was causing rabbits to develop antibodies to HIV, which left NIH officials "flabbergasted," according to a criminal complaint against Han.'

Cho's team sent blood samples in 2009 to Duke University researchers, who verified the apparent positive impact on the vaccinated rabbits. The confirmation was seen as "a major breakthrough in HIV/AIDS vaccine research," according to the complaint.

Iowa State recruited Cho in 2009, and with his team — including Han — he soon received a five-year NIH grant to continue the research. The team kept reporting progress. But in January 2013, a team at Harvard University found the promising results had been achieved with rabbit blood spiked with human antibodies.

An investigation by Iowa State pinpointed Han, after he was caught sending more spiked samples to Duke University. In a Sept. 30, 2013 confession letter, Han said he started the fraud in 2009 "because he wanted (results) to look better" and that he acted alone.

"I was foolish, coward, and not frank," he wrote.

Cho has said he was devastated and angered that he wasted years on the research, but he has vowed to continue his work. He has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Stephen Brown, medical director for the AIDS Research Alliance, said the case highlights the fierce competition to win increasingly scarce NIH research funding.

"Han's case also indicates the need for greater transparency and oversight of the peer review funding process, which is cloaked in secrecy and often leads to large sums being given to favored organizations, despite a lack of output," Brown said in a statement.

Vaccine researcher charged with felony crimes for research fraud; may spend 20 years in prison over faked AIDS vaccine

 Wednesday, June 25, 2014

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

 http://www.naturalnews.com/045726_research_fraud_AIDS_vaccine_science-based_medicine.html

(NaturalNews) Scientific fraud is so common in the vaccine industry, it's practically the default business model. The truth is that most vaccines don't work, so in order to make them appear to work, researchers routinely spike blood samples of vaccinated test subjects with antibodies, making it appear the vaccine caused the body to produce those antibodies.

This is exactly what Merck does with MMR vaccines, according to the company's own former virologists who filed a False Claims Act with the federal government. It's also why up to 97% of children who contract measles or mumps were already vaccinated against measles and mumps.

Now, a National Institutes of Health-funded vaccine scientist who was celebrated as achieving a breakthrough vaccine against HIV has confessed to spiking the test subject blood samples with antibodies. Dong-Pyou Han had taken $5 million in NIH grant money to further his "research" at Iowa State University. The mainstream media and vaccine advocates hailed his research as groundbreaking, "game-changing" advancements in the search for an AIDS vaccine.

But now, it turns out Han committed outrageous scientific fraud that wasted taxpayer money and diverted resources away from other important research projects. So federal prosecutors have taken the extraordinary step of charging Han with making false statements to the government. He now faces four felony counts, each of which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. (Yes, lying to the government is a federal crime. But the government lying to us, well... that's another matter altogether.)

"It's an important case because it is extremely rare for scientists found to have committed fraud to be held accountable by the actual criminal justice system," said Retraction Watch co-founder Ivan Oransky in an ABC News article. (1)

The vaccine industry routinely gets away with fraud: Why aren't more criminal charges filed?

All this brings up the question of why more fraudulent vaccine researchers aren't charged with felony crimes. It also begs the question of why companies like GlaxoSmithKline, which openly admit to committing multiple felony crimes in the routine bribing of doctors, are still allowed to conduct business with the government at all.

The vaccine industry, you see, is run like a criminal mafia that has blanket legal immunity thanks to the U.S. Congress. Vaccines are the only product sold in the USA which can be defectively manufactured and kill people, yet still face zero legal liability in the courts.

This is true even when vaccines have been found to contain tiny shards of glass, high levels of toxic mercury, a brain-damaging heavy metal, or even live viruses that literally infect people with the very disease the vaccine claims to prevent.

In the United States, a vaccine manufacturer could spike their vaccines with motor oil, cancer viruses, live bacteria, hexavalent chromium, Agent Orange or any other chemical they wanted, and the manufacturer would still have total immunity from all lawsuits. Because of this immunity, vaccine manufacturing has zero quality control pressure in the real world, because vaccine manufacturers are not liable for defective products. So what's the difference if a few batches a year accidentally contain SV40 cancer viruses, or shards of glass, or too much mercury?

That's why Dr. Maurice Hilleman, former Merck vaccine developer, openly said, "I think that vaccines have to be considered the bargain basement technology for the 20th century." (SOURCE)

Vaccine and drug researchers who commit fraud are also routinely given a slap on the wrist rather than being charged with felony crimes. Remember the psychiatric doctor named Charles Nemeroff who held a chairman position at Emory University? Even after being caught secretly taking $800,000 from GlaxoSmithKline and stripped of his chairmanship, Emory University -- a dubious institution steeped in drug money influence -- failed to fire Nemeroff and kept him on staff. According to the WSJ, 14 other Emory University doctors also received money from the Depression and Anxiety journal to write articles about Effector. At Emory, it seems, selling out to the drug industry is just a routine way of participating in academia.

It's time to end legal immunity for research fraud

Vaccine researchers in particular have long enjoyed a presumed legal immunity, even when they commit outrageous scientific fraud. The public has been hoodwinked into thinking vaccines always work and drug companies are engaged in "evidence-based medicine" even when it's all being faked.

In truth, most vaccines don't work on most people. This is readily admitted on the vaccine inserts themselves, believe it or not. For example, I have in my possession a Flulaval Influenza Virus Vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline. This insert says, word for word, all the following astonishing things:

"There have been no controlled trials adequately demonstrating a decrease in influenza disease after vaccination with Flulaval." (The vaccine insert openly admits the vaccine is backed by zero evidence? So much for so-called "evidence-based medicine." Now you're taking a flu shot on pure faith. Perhaps they should be called Evangelical Vaccines...)

Because some readers were skeptical that a vaccine insert would openly admit the vaccine doesn't work, I have taken a photo of this insert as shown here. This is the photo the vaccine industry desperately hopes you never see:

Other astonishing statements made on the vaccine insert include:

"Safety and effectiveness of Flulaval have not been established in pregnant women, nursing mothers or children." (And yet this vaccine is routinely administered to pregnant women.)

"Safety and effectiveness of Flulaval in pediatric patients have not been established." (Yet the vaccine is also routinely given to children.)

"Flulaval has not been evaluated for carcinogenic or mutagenic potential, or for impairment of fertility." (It might cause cancer and spontaneous abortions, in other words, but they don't really know.)

"Do not administer Flulaval to anyone... following previous administration of any influenza vaccine."  (No one who has already had a flu shot in any previous year should take this flu shot. Yet flu shots are routinely given year after year to the very same people who often end up getting the flu anyway because their immune systems are so compromised.)

Total immunity from FTC over blatant marketing fraud

What's interesting to note about flu vaccines in particular is that they also enjoy complete immunity from the FTC even while making blatantly false claims in their marketing.

The FTC, you see, routinely goes after scammy weight loss supplement companies for making false claims. They even threw Kevin Trudeau in prison for making false statements in a weight loss book.

But when influenza vaccines are aggressively marketed with blatantly false claims -- both literal claims and implied claims -- the FTC utterly ignores them. Think about it: what other product can get away with being marketed to the public as working even though its own safety sheet openly admits there's no evidence the product works at all?

Can you imagine an oil company selling gasoline that didn't combust? Or a soap company selling a liquid that didn't contain any soap? How about a wine maker selling a beverage that turned out to be grape juice instead of wine? In all these cases, people would get angry and the FTC would investigate. But when flu shots are sold without any scientific evidence that they really work, the federal government looks the other way and pretends no marketing fraud is taking place.

Thank goodness at least one branch of the feds is charging Dong-Pyou Han with crimes related to the massive vaccine fraud he committed. This is at least a start. If all fraudulent vaccine researchers were similarly charged with felony crimes, we'd have a court system full of such cases and we'd probably have to build a whole new prison just for the vaccine criminals, where they could all practice exposing each other to Anthrax by using CDC-approved research protocols.

Sources for this article include:

(1) http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/r...