SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 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]