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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: 3, Touché) by tibman on Thursday November 16 2017, @06:46PM (2 children)
It would be bad to create an incentive to do unethical science. If "data is data" then strip all names (and credit) from the data.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday November 16 2017, @07:22PM (1 child)
If actual harm IS done, then be sure that names and credit for the harm IS or BECOMES associated with the data set.
Police can legally stop you for having too much tent on your window.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by deimtee on Friday November 17 2017, @01:33AM
No, data is data. If harm is done, then penalize the people who did the harm.
You can even make the penalty so big that others are dissuaded from unethical research, but throwing out the data once you have it is making that harm worse by rendering it pointless.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.