2nd Group Calls on Congress to Suspend NIH Grants and Criticizes NIH Spokesperson’s Response
Another large national organization, The FAIR Foundation, and its 27 member Board of Directors of surgeons, medical directors, dentists and patient advocates, applauds the recent call to Congress by the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) urging Congress to freeze National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for six months while investigating the NIH’s research practices that are "striking working families across America as wasteful, illicit, and in many cases outright offensive."
Palm Desesrt, CA (PRWEB) August 02, 2011
Another large national organization, The FAIR Foundation, and its 27 member Board of Directors of surgeons, medical directors, dentists and patient advocates, applauds the recent call to Congress by the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) urging Congress to freeze National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for six months while investigating the NIH’s research practices that are "striking working families across America as wasteful, illicit, and in many cases outright offensive."
FAIR’s CEO, Dr. Richard Darling, states, “I applaud TVC for ‘outing’ the NIH for improper use of taxpayer dollars to study 'rats on cocaine, water buffaloes and snails in China,' which owns over a trillion dollars in US Treasuries and can well afford to fund its own researchers."
Darling continues: "It should be pointed out that the NIH seems to think our dollars should also be providing research jobs in other areas of the world, as evidenced in the list below. It is taken from just two of the pages detailing HIV research.”
- Kazakhstan: Couples-Based HIV Prevention for Injecting Drug Users
- Tijuana: Epidemiology of HIV and HCV Among Injecting Drug Users
- China: Neurobehavioral effects of HIV and host genetics
- Thailand: Risk Factors for HIV-1 infection Among Young men
- Brazil: HIV and Perinatal Depression
- Malawi: A Randomized Trial of HIV Partner Notification
- Brazil AIDS Consortium
- Jamaica: HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials
- Kenya: Preventing HIV Risk Among Adolescent Orphans
- Zimbabwe: Environmental Factors Shaping Circumcision Decisions
- Cambodia: Culture and HIV Prevention
- Kenya: Mental health assessment & treatment for HIV prevention
- Haiti: Cost-effectiveness: Early vs. Delayed Antiretroviral Therapy
- India: National AIDS Research Institute: Clinical Trials Unit
- Chiang Mai University HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials Unit
- Uganda: Impact of HIV & therapy on cause and Outcome of Meningitis
Darling has special criticism for the NIH’s response to the Traditional Values Coalition by NIH spokesperson, John Burklow, who responded that this funding is necessary with his reference to HIV disease and “many people in the USA who suffer from parasite diseases.”
Darling states, “Regarding HIV, what Burklow didn't mention is that the Director of the NIH’s Institute that oversees HIV’s $28.3 billion budget request, Anthony Fauci, MD, has publicly admitted his ‘breathtaking success’ with ‘HIV patients living normal lives.’”
(To insure fair and equitable distributions of NIH bio-medical research funding, FAIR has issued an opinion editorial calling on President Obama to replace Director Fauci with a Director who has no bias towards any one disease.)
Darling: “Fauci has been at the NIH overseeing all HIV funding through five US Presidents; it is time for change. Such favoritism is grossly unfair to researchers looking for cures for all other illnesses, including rare illnesses, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hepatitis C."
Darling continues, “Taxpayers have now spent over one-third of a trillion dollars on HIV disease. It is an outrage that our country, which is on the verge of default, is continuing such funding on a disease that in almost all cases can be prevented by purchasing a 50¢ condom and treated with two pills a day that cost 40¢. These facts were recently emphasized by HIV advocates and legendary performers Bono and Elton Johnwho also publicly admitted that ‘HIV is not a life threatening illnesses anymore.’”
Regarding Burklow stating that the NIH’s exorbitant funding was necessary due to many people in the U.S. who suffer from parasitic diseases, Darling has little patience:
“I’m sure we all have many friends and relatives riddled with parasites. For the NIH to stoop to such an absurd statement is clear evidence of the need for
Congress to step in and put an end to the NIH's abusive use of taxpayer funds.”
Dr. Richard Darling is the Founder, President & CEO of the FAIR Foundation whose missions are equitable funding for bio-medical research, new policies to reverse America’s organ-donor crisis, promotion of organ donation, preventive health education and pre- and post-transplant educational/emotional support and referral for transplant in their Liver Disease & Transplant Support Group. FAIR’s Board of Directors includes 27 transplant surgeons, medical directors, dentists, pharmacists and patient advocates.
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