{"id":2006671,"date":"2023-08-21T07:55:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-21T11:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nih-is-due-for-an-overhaul-after-covid-exposed-lies-power-abuses-and-conflicts-of-interest\/"},"modified":"2023-08-21T08:01:01","modified_gmt":"2023-08-21T12:01:01","slug":"nih-is-due-for-an-overhaul-after-covid-exposed-lies-power-abuses-and-conflicts-of-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nih-is-due-for-an-overhaul-after-covid-exposed-lies-power-abuses-and-conflicts-of-interest\/","title":{"rendered":"NIH Needs Overhaul: Covid Reveals Lies, Power Abuse, and Conflicts"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnih-is-due-for-an-overhaul-after-covid-exposed-lies-power-abuses-and-conflicts-of-interest%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2006671&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., filed \u200ca <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/changing-america\/well-being\/prevention-cures\/564803-rand-paul-sends-official-criminal-referral-on\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">criminal referral<\/a> with the Department of \u2062Justice against Anthony Fauci \u200cfor allegedly lying to Congress about the\u2062 National Institutes of Health\u2019s gain-of-function research. While \u2064we don\u2019t desire\u200c to see Fauci imprisoned, the\u2063 complaint demonstrates the severity of the \u200bNIH\u2019s deficiencies\u2063 and \u2062the need for sweeping reform.<\/p>\n<p>Any honest assessment of the NIH\u2019s pandemic performance would give it a poor grade. While NIH support for the rapid development of the Covid vaccine deserves some credit, the NIH failed\u200c in \u200calmost every other aspect of \u2064its contribution\u2063 to the pandemic response.  <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2007397722\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-a8cc0d3a1fd69a199825c8b4b9a9d70b fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-a8cc0d3a1fd69a199825c8b4b9a9d70b\"><\/div>\n<p>With the recent appointment of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2023\/05\/15\/politics\/biden-monica-bertagnolli-national-institutes-of-health\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">new NIH director<\/a> to replace Francis Collins and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2023\/08\/02\/health\/niaid-director-jeanne-marrazzo\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">new National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases<\/a> \u2062 (NIAID) director\u200d to replace Anthony Fauci, the\u2063 time \u200dis now to reflect\u200b and for\u200b Congress to \u200cenact structural reforms. But what needs fixing? The most\u2063 crucial \u2062priority is to remove fundamental conflicts of interest \u2064brought to light by abuses of these positions by\u2063 Collins and Fauci.  <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Scientific Research vs.\u200b Public Health Strategy<\/h2>\n<p>During a pandemic emergency, there \u200dis\u200b a need for urgent\u200c scientific research and an open and robust debate on the most appropriate science-based public\u2062 health policy. The former is \u2063the responsibility of the NIH, while the latter is\u200c the responsibility of the \u200cCenters for Disease Control and\u200c Prevention and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-administration-to-give-10-billion-to-schools-for-covid-testing\/\" title=\"Biden Administration To Give  Billion To Schools For COVID Testing\">state health departments<\/a>. If those responsible for\u2062 public health\u2062 policy also hold the \u2063purse strings of research funding, most\u200d scientists will not dare to criticize the hand that feeds \u2062them, no matter how misguided the\u2062 pandemic strategy.   <\/p>\n<p>Former NIH leaders Fauci and Collins \u200cwere \u200carchitects and proponents of the lockdown-focused strategy, which ultimately failed to protect Americans \u2063from the harms of the virus \u200dand imposed enormous collateral public health damage from increased chronic diseases, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/parents-report-childs-mental-health-deteriorated-considerably-after-transitioning-study\/\" title=\"Parents Report Child\u2019s \u2018Mental Health Deteriorated Considerably\u2019 After Transitioning: Study\">deteriorated mental health<\/a>, and lost education. Fauci and \u200cCollins abused their positions to destroy\u2062 the reputations\u2063 of credible scientists who opposed \u200clockdowns for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-court-rules-cdc-eviction-moratorium-is-unlawful\/\" title=\"Federal Court rules CDC eviction moratorium is unlawful\">public health reasons<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p>There is an implicit conflict of interest \u200bin \u200bthe power possessed by NIH \u2062leaders. We can attest to this problem from personal experience after we wrote the <a href=\"https:\/\/gbdeclaration.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">anti-lockdown Great Barrington Declaration<\/a> \u2064(along with Professor Sunetra \u200cGupta at \u200cOxford University). The declaration urged\u200b focused protection of \u2063high-risk, older Americans while keeping schools \u200dopen and letting\u2063 young people live near-normal \u200clives. Published in October 2020, it quickly garnered \u200bthe signatures \u200dof tens of thousands of medical\u200b scientists and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/celebrate-the-truth-politifact-announces-festival-of-fact-checking-with-special-guests-anthony-fauci-and-cnns-brian-stelter\/\" title=\"\u2018Celebrate The Truth!\u2019 PolitiFact Announces \u2018Festival Of Fact-Checking,\u2019 With Special Guests Anthony Fauci and CNN\u2019s Brian Stelter\">health care professionals<\/a>. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-02c89ac7a3d690279861cf7b9c5926e5 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-02c89ac7a3d690279861cf7b9c5926e5\"><\/div>\n<p>But four days after we wrote the document, Collins\u200c wrote an email to Fauci denoting the three of us \u2064as \u201cfringe epidemiologists\u201d and calling for\u200b a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-10324873\/Emails-reveal-Fauci-head-NIH-colluded-try-smear-experts-called-end-lockdowns.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">devastating takedown<\/a>.\u201d Fauci responded with\u2064 an article from Wired Magazine that falsely alleged we\u2064 were calling to let the \u200dvirus \u201crip.\u201d They instigated<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/fauci-collins-emails-great-barrington-declaration-covid-pandemic-lockdown-11640129116\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> a \u200dpropaganda war against us<\/a>, including a spate of hit\u2063 pieces written by government-friendly journalists, and we\u2062 faced a barrage of hate mail and death threats \u2063due to their abuse of power. Authentic \u2062scientific leadership would instead\u200d have encouraged and \u2063organized public health discussions between scientists with \u200cdifferent views. <\/p>\n<p>In \u2064early 2020, NIH officials engaged in similar takedowns of scientists who \u200bcontradicted the party line that\u200d the virus emerged from a zoonotic spillover from a bat or\u2063 pangolin at the Wuhan wet market. Emails exchanged among Fauci, Collins, and other NIH officials in January\u200b and February 2020 show them organizing a coverup of\u200d the\u2062 idea that a lab leak from \u2063the Wuhan Insitute of Virology might have \u200cstarted the pandemic.\u200d Collins\u200b even gave interviews \u2064where he called the idea racist. <\/p>\n<p>When\u200c the high clerisy of the NIH decreed \u200cit anathema to oppose lockdowns or discuss the lab-leak\u2062 hypothesis, many scientists with alternate ideas silenced themselves. For\u2064 American biomedical \u200cscientists, NIH grant awards are\u200c not \u200bmerely\u2063 a source of \u200cmoney to run experiments. They are often required for promotion and tenure in medical \u2063schools. If you want to influence other\u2062 biomedical scientists\u2019 thinking, then\u200d winning an\u2063 NIH grant is often a necessary step. \u200dFor this reason, NIH \u200bleaders should stick to funding\u2063 science and avoid \u2062pontificating on \u200cpublic health\u200d policy questions, instead leaving that to the CDC and state health departments. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>NIH Patent Royalty Payments<\/strong> <\/h2>\n<p>Regulations\u200c permit \u2062NIH researchers to receive royalty \u2063payments\u2062 for their\u200b taxpayer-funded research, including millions of\u2064 dollars for the\u200c NIH-funded Moderna vaccine. Simultaneously, the\u200c NIH issues \u200devidence summaries that doctors use to inform \u2062patient \u2064treatments. This conflict of interest may\u2062 lead the \u2063NIH to favor patented drugs over \u2063cheap, \u200coff-patent\u2064 drugs that could benefit many people for a fraction of the cost.  <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-9d434f82e56c86cefb40d927f8afe1fc fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-9d434f82e56c86cefb40d927f8afe1fc\"><\/div>\n<p>This \u200dconflict of interest may have affected the\u200b NIH\u2019s \u2062pandemic decision-making. If the NIH \u200chas a job during\u2064 pandemics, it is to support the rapid development of treatments. In 2020, however, the NIH failed to rapidly assess cheap, repurposed drugs with \u200bhigh-quality \u200drandomized \u2064trials\u200b despite several promising avenues for research. While it did fund the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nih.gov\/research-training\/medical-research-initiatives\/activ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ACTIV randomized studies<\/a>, many key results, including the highly\u2063 contentious ivermectin, were unavailable until late\u200b 2022\u200b \u2014 \u2063far too late to help.  <\/p>\n<p>Because\u200b of this failure, early treatment options became matters \u2064of political point-scoring rather\u200b than dispassionate scientific evaluation. By \u200dcontrast, U.K. scientists ran \u200cthe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMoa2021436\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">RECOVERY randomized trial<\/a> in summer 2020, which found that a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nih-is-due-for-an-overhaul-after-covid-exposed-lies-power-abuses-and-conflicts-of-interest\/\" title=\"NIH Needs Overhaul: Covid Reveals Lies, Power Abuse, and Conflicts\">cheap steroid \u2014\u2062 dexamethasone \u2014 effectively reduced mortality<\/a> among hospitalized Covid patients.  <\/p>\n<p>Why permit intramural\u200c NIH researchers\u200c to earn patent royalties at all? Proponents argue it would be \u200bmore challenging to recruit scientists to work at the\u2064 NIH \u200dwithout it. As a public science agency, however, the purpose of the NIH is not to outcompete universities and industry. It is to promote \u2064scientific discoveries\u2063 nationwide and to conduct research that the \u200bprivate \u2063sector would\u200d not perform because the product is a\u200b public good. <\/p>\n<p>If universities and private \u2063industry are interested in funding a scientific \u200cproject with patentable byproducts, let \u2063them fund the\u200d research. NIH-funded research should focus on\u200c crucial unpatentable science that the private sector would never perform. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Fundamental Reforms<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>These conflicts of interest \u2063have seriously threatened the quality, integrity, and social effects of NIH research. The NIH\u200d requires\u00a0fundamental reform. The NIH \u200cneeds stronger conflict-of-interest rules:\u200b no more patent royalties for researchers, no more NIH leaders pontificating on matters of public health\u2064 policy, \u200dno more \u201cdevastating takedowns\u201d of other scientists, and \u200dno NIH research coordination with\u2062 pharmaceutical companies. \u2064Instead, the NIH should actively encourage\u2064 scientific debate and conduct research that transforms biomedicine and improves public \u200bhealth without imposing patent \u200drestrictions. <\/p>\n<p>There must be a term limit for NIH leaders, with \u200dnew \u200bleadership chosen from outside the NIH. These positions are too powerful to leave in the hands \u200dof a single person for decades. It is too easy for people in such positions to think of\u200c themselves as \u201cthe science\u201d itself, surrounded as they are by people seeking NIH favor. Relatives of NIH leaders should not run the agency\u2019s ethics infrastructure,\u200c as occurred \u2062during the pandemic. As science\u200d needs a regular infusion of new ideas,\u200c so \u200cdoes scientific leadership.  <\/p>\n<p>During the pandemic,\u200c the NIH failed in its mission to support medical and public health research because of its abuses of power and its conflicts of interest. Congress now has an\u200c opportunity to demand\u2064 reforms so that the\u200b NIH better serves\u2062 the \u2063American people\u2064 in the future. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1d28973bce7c5e674257eb49f95f8d03 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1d28973bce7c5e674257eb49f95f8d03\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., lodged a criminal referral with the DOJ, accusing Anthony Fauci of lying to Congress about NIH&#8217;s gain-of-function research. Though not seeking Fauci&#8217;s imprisonment, the complaint highlights NIH&#8217;s flaws and the urgency for comprehensive reform. An unbiased evaluation reveals the gravity of the situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1585,"featured_media":2006672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2006671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1585"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2006671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2006672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2006671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2006671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2006671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}