Wulsin’s Woes: Another Self-Inflicted ‘November Surprise’
Not to be outdone by John Kerry, whose insult to our soldiers is perhaps the greatest single “October Surprise” inflicted on an entire political party by a member of that same party in American political history — 2nd District Democrat congressional candidate Victorial Wulsin is the first politician in my memory to create two “November Surprises” that are, at bottom, entirely of her own doing.
November Surprise 1: Yesterday, Whisky-Tango-Foxtrot, with some help from yours truly, revealed Wulsin’s “Nuke Waste Dump” deception.
Today, the Dean of Cincinnati at the Cincinnati Beacon is reporting that BizzyBlog Dealbreaker 1 is coming back to deliver Wulsin November Surprise 2, an oh-so-richly-deserved bite in the butt on the Friday before Election Day:
This morning, Dr. Robert Baratz, on behalf of the National Council Against Health Fraud, requested that the State Medical Board of Ohio conduct an investigation into the activities of Dr. Victoria Wells (Wulsin)—who is also in the final week of a campaign against Republican incumbent Jean Schmidt in the race for second congressional district seat.
….. Baratz’s letter to the medical board included the following:
Activities which we feel merit discipline include, but are not limited to:
Participation in unsupervised, unapproved, and dangerous experiments involving human beings where serious diseases were left untreated akin to the notorious Tuskegee experiments. Wells participated with the Heimlich Institute, Henry Heimlich, The Deaconess Associations of Cincinnati, and other parties in these experiments. Further, when Wells became aware of the nature of these deviant and immoral acts she failed to reveal them to proper authorities, and thus became complicit in them. Numerous journalistic reports and release of a report on this work by Wells herself document her involvement and the experiments themselves. The experiments violate 21 CFR 50 and 56 and 45 CFR 46 and appear to involve lack of informed consent, use of unapproved biological agents, and other unprofessional conduct.
After Wells’ activities became known, she altered the records of her report in an attempt to mislead the public as to her true role.
Recently television advertising depicts Wells in a laboratory coat with a stethoscope in a medical facility suggesting to the public she is a practicing physician. In response to interviews and questions conducted by the Cincinnati Enquirer on October 20, 2006 Wells admitted she has not seen a patient in approximately five years “My most recent clinical work was at the Health Resource Center in Over-the-Rhine from 1998 to 2001.”
The so-called Heimlich Malariotherapy experiments involve the injection of malarial parasites into humans for the alleged treatment of cancer, Lyme disease, and HIV infection. They have been disclaimed by numerous medical authorities, including the Centers for Disease Control, and exposed by the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and numerous other media.
Baratz has asked for this investigation under Section 4731.22 of the Ohio Revised Code.
We can’t trust her to tell the whole truth about her involvement in malariotherapy, and so we have asked how she could be trusted as a congressperson. This question, however, has thrown party-line Democrats into a frenzy. They accuse us of working to help Jean Schmidt. Whatever. Jean Schmidt may be a bad candidate, but Wulsin’s status as “ethically challenged” cannot be ignored.
….. Message to Democrats: If you expect real progressives to vote for your candidates, you’re going to have to do much better than this!
In the course of his post on the Baratz announcement, Dean also revealed the details of Wulsin’s “Nuke Waste Dump” deception.
The Dean, who no one will ever mistake for a conservative, clearly understands what a Dealbreaker is, and that this is indeed a big one. Other “progressives” should take heed.
Let’s see. Dr. Baratz is an ER Doc with little training. He makes his living testifying. A hired gun. Attorneys call them whores. Think OJ Simpson trial.
He seems to think that practicing physicians are what he sees on TV sitcoms. They have to be in it for the money (like he is).
Albert Sabin had to start protecting kids from polio in Soviet Russia because luddites like Baratz whipped up public opinion against using live virus immunization.
HIV is a very difficult pathogen, and has caused huge public health problems. If malaria parasites somehow block the manifestations of AIDS, it should be studied. Turns out the data is crummy. But you could only know that by studying it.
Get angry with Heimlich. Remember, he has a huge name and lots of money. Heimlich is a publicity freak. He’s looking for a follow-on to his ‘manuever’, his ‘dart’, his ‘reverse gastric tube’, etc.
In the healthcare arena, there are alot of kooky ideas. Most are shot down via peer-reviewed studies, not BIG GOVERNMENT witch hunts that Dr. Baratz advocates. Every week responsible physicians meet in a private Morbidity and Mortality Conference to dissect their failures. It’s what good doctors do. Baratz is a gadfly. He’s free to be as silly as he wants. Any physician can write a letter to the Medical Board. It’s a free country.
Comment by Mike Roser — November 3, 2006 @ 12:16 pm
Point 1:
- You have not addressed the *willing participant* issue.
Point 2:
- If Dr. Baratz is a professional witness (which I do not know), you would probably be waving pompoms if he was going after the least little slip-up in the development of a drug by so-called Big Pharma. I would suggest that going after people who conduct potentially dangerous studies with people who may not have given informed consent, and the people like Wulsin who give them intellectual cover, is a higher priority.
Comment by TBlumer — November 3, 2006 @ 1:09 pm
[…] Bizzyblog is on it, let’s see if the LSOM is able to buy a clue. […]
Pingback by NixGuy.com » Health Fraud Org Wants Wulsin Investigated. — November 3, 2006 @ 1:27 pm
Your Points:
1.’Willing Participant’ - my understanding is that Dr. Wulsin conducted a literature review of malariatherapy (sic) and rejected the hypothesis. What’s your understanding?
It appears that she conducted peer review. This is something that’s done every day by health professions. A successful peer review system separates message from messenger. You don’t need ad hominem attacks to alter behavior.
2. I looked Baratz on Google and the Mass. Medical Board. That’s my source for his credentials.
Wulsin reviewed the literature, gave her thumbs down opinion, and walked away.
This happens all the time in medicine. But there’s no need to become hysterical about it.
Let me give you a current, high profile example: NSAIDs are important pain relief, anti-inflammatory drugs. An unfortunate side effect is stomach ulcers and bleeding. A bleeding gastric ulcer is lethal in certain cercumstances. Vioxx was the ONLY COX-2 selective NSAID that was statistically effective in randomized trials. Because of legal risk VIOXX was pulled from the market. For that segment of patients who could benefit, they got hosed.
Unfortunately life is more nuanced than you and Schmidt think.
Comment by Mike Roser — November 3, 2006 @ 2:55 pm
Dr. Baratz has been widely quoted in numerous major league publications, including these recent anti-quack articles in Business Week* and the the Los Angeles Times**. The National Council Against Health Fraud is an established volunteer organization that goes after bad and unscrupulous doctors, often working in conjunction with law enforcement.
* http://tinyurl.com/cceun
** http://tinyurl.com/yfq6dj
Comment by Research Monster — November 3, 2006 @ 9:15 pm
#4, if you read the underlying documents, you simply would not have wasted your time with your totally inaccurate comment.
I won’t do your homework for you, and don’t need to be lectured about my knowledge or lack thereof of pharma/FDA. The trial-lawyer supporters of Dems in general have kept Vioxx from benefitting those who got hosed.
Comment by TBlumer — November 4, 2006 @ 12:26 am
Mike Roser: Wulsin reviewed the literature, gave her thumbs down opinion, and walked away.
False on all counts.
Rather than condemning Heimlich’s illegal experiments, Wulsin’s report recommends further studies and reads like a fundraising prospectus. That what she was paid $10K/month for, to put a happy face on “malariotherapy” to boost Heimlich’s fundraising with private donors. Wulsin’s report was never supposed to see the light of day. That’s why for months she refused to release it to the Dean. She finally did so on the advice of the Democratic Party who advised her to get out in front of this nagging political problem.
Wulsin did not “walk away” from the Heimlich Institute. She was working there in 2004 with the knowledge of only a few people and was being paid out of Heimlich’s private account. When an anonymous e-mail was widely circulated to medical and charitable organizations in Cincinnati, asking why she was mixed up with Heimlich’s outrageous human experiments, she flew the coop. That’s one reason why she came up with her silly cover story. Another reason is that she was getting calls from reporters from Radar Magazine and other publications.
Here’s the Radar article: http://tinyurl.com/9rrph
Given the growing media attention to this and other Heimlich-related stories, perhaps these and other facts will make their way into future articles. Given that possibility, Mr. Roser may wish to temper his comments if only to minimize the possibility of additional eggs on his face.
Comment by Bluto — November 4, 2006 @ 10:57 am
#7, thanks.
Comment by TBlumer — November 4, 2006 @ 3:47 pm