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Questionable herpes vaccine research backed by tech heavyweight Peter Thiel may have jeopardized $15 million in federal research funding to Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. That's according to documents obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request by The State Journal Register.
In August, Kaiser Health News reported that Thiel and other conservative investors had contributed $7 million for the live-but-weakened herpes virus vaccine, developed by the late SIU researcher William Halford. The investments came after Halford and his private company, Rational Vaccines, had begun conducting small clinical trials in the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis. With the off-shore location, Rational Vaccines' trial skirted federal regulations and standard safety protocols for human trials, including having approval and oversight from an institutional review board (IRB).
Experts were quick to call the unapproved trial "patently unethical," and researchers rejected the data from publication, calling the handling of safety issues "reckless." The government of St. Kitts opened an investigation into the trial and reported that health authorities there had been kept in the dark.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @06:41PM (7 children)
A thoroughly shitty article, made to assault and sully Peter Thiel.
The article does not even list the strain this vaccine is made from, or is meant to work against. It leaves this out so everyone automatically assumes it's for genital herpes. Is it? I don't fucking know, it was not in the fucking article. But I do know there are many strains, and most are benign to large sector of population, but manifest symptoms in a small subset. I know this because I have a persistent infection that causes occasional cold sores, and is of such a strain that does not affect almost anyone but me. I guess I lost genetic lottery on that one, and my immune system does not sufficiently suppress the virus that 80% of the population has, and exposure to it has given people limited immunity to genital herpes (though you should not test this immunity :). Would I welcome a vaccine for this shit? Sure if it works for me, I'd love it. It's not life threatening, and I mostly learned what triggers outbreaks and try to avoid it, but shit it's still inconvenient when it happens, and rather unsightly.
Was this research for profit? I don't know. It's not in the fucking article. For all I know Peter Thiel suffers from benign herpes also, and would love to have that disease eradicated, so he figured he can toss some money onto something that looks promising and helps people, I'm sure he can afford it. But once again this is as much a conjecture on my part as everything else is on part of the "reporter."
Fuck this article, and fuck that shitty website.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @06:52PM
Careful, there, sonny! You might catch herpes! Best to stick to congress with known clean people, like Peter.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @07:12PM (2 children)
Right, the entire point is to criticize one of your homeboys. You realize that moronic reactions like yours are why conservatives and their offshoots have developed reputations for being ignorant and harmful to modern society right? When the actual government of St. Kitts does an investigation (in case you missed the link to a separate site Investigation underway [wicnews.com]) it should tell you that this is more than just some #fakenews hit story. If I was investing millions of dollars I would at least ask WHY the research is being done on some tiny island instead of at the actual University, so in this case it is very likely the investors knew that some ethical lines were being crossed.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday November 16 2017, @07:17PM (1 child)
Also, if this is like some similar cases, the data itself is suspect. Just because someone hands you some data doesn't mean you should believe it if the provenance is dubious.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday November 16 2017, @07:27PM
Sanity check - it's a starter data set.
If it gives you an idea that it works or not, it can inform another trial.
Does a rigorous trial actually require an institutional review board? Do these boards check to make sure the data wasn't "massaged" in "ethical" trials?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @07:44PM (2 children)
> For all I know Peter Thiel suffers from benign herpes also, ...
In that case, he should volunteer for the experimental treatment himself. There is a long history of self-experimentation in medicine.
(Score: 5, Touché) by DannyB on Thursday November 16 2017, @07:50PM
He could volunteer for experimental lobotomy to see if it reduces sociopathic tendencies. It would be a scientific study. With all the rigor and ethics that he practices on other human subjects.
Universal health care is so complex that only 32 of 33 developed nations have found a way to make it work.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @08:15PM
More than likely the motivation he has in this is a totally different kind of self-experimentation, medically speaking. Pete's a well-know vampire. He believes in "young blood" transfusions staving off aging. So who else besides vampires would have a sincere, if self, interest in cleaning up the blood supply from unwanted viral infections? Hmmm?