Sorry, Jeff Coryell — Vic’s Malariotherapy Adventure Is Still a Dealbreaker
Nice try, Jeff, no sale — The validity, or lack thereof, of the complaint to the Ohio’s State Medical Board doesn’t change the validity of conclusions reached in 2006.
First, an important assertion made by the Dean of Cincinnati remains unrefuted, unless someone proves otherwise. Thus, his conclusion still stands:
She told one reporter that she did not find “Malariotherapy†effective, yet in her report to the Heimlich Institute she laid out plans to rename it, promote it, and do further research on it.
….. Dr. Wulsin now seeks the office of congresswoman, representing the citizens of Ohio. While we all can make small errors of judgment and may disagree from time to time, Wulsin’s activities at the Heimlich Institute go beyond simple mistakes. She knew exactly what she was doing, worked for a period of months, had access to records and resources, and was paid for it. How she was paid should be the subject of further investigation. In my opinion, her failure to stop the “Malariotherapy†by exposing it is reprehensible. If she claims she didn’t know then she is inept.
My pre-election take in 2006 also still stands:
Folks, the CDC and others rightly believe that this kind of human experimentation needs to be relegated to the House of Horrors — not given at least tacit sanction, as it was, by an MD who at some point may have been on the take.
As a congressperson in a technically advanced age, Vic Wulsin will be in a position to not only vote on legislation authorizing “advances” in medical science that are questionably ethical, but she will be able to throw the persuasive weight of her medical credentials behind any effort to do so.
(Now, pay attention closely here, because deciding that Vic Wulsin’s ethical breaches constitute a Dealbreaker has NOTHING to do with whether you, dear reader, are prolife, but they have EVERYTHING to do with whether Vic Wulsin is prolife.)
All of this aside, Vic Wulsin could have a failsafe position in all of this if she were unequivocally prolife. Her past dalliance with Dr. Heimlich could be excused as a big, but not fatal, mistake, as she had no hands-on involvement in experiments. She could in theory, say she’s sorry and promise to sin no more. But Vic Wulsin is anything but prolife, and is in fact pro-abort, pro-embryonic stem cell research, and perhaps even pro-cloning (she refused to answer a Cincinnati Right to Life questionnaire which could have cleared up these matters). This means that there is no reason — none — to believe that she would be willing to put the moral brakes on allowing taxpayer dollars to be used for “promising” but unethical medical studies and protocols that might be stampeded though Congress in the name of “the greater good,” or to make such studies a law-enforcement matter if they were attempted in the private sector.
Based on all of the above, Vic Wulsin has earned BizzyBlog Dealbreaker 1: Serious Lapses in Medical Ethics.
(Recall that a BizzyBlog Dealbreaker is “something that completely justifies a person not voting for you, regardless of your party or your stands on the issues.”)
What the state Ethics Board did or didn’t do changes none of this.
If 2nd District voters knew of Vic’s Malariotherapy Adventures, the vast majority would immediately see her as totally out of touch with their values. Wulsin’s only hope is that, with the silent assistance of the Cincinnati Enquirer, they never find out.
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Source Material:
- Oct. 20 — (Cincinnati Beacon, guest column by Dr. Robert Baratz) Black Box Warning: Wulsin’s Claims of Innocence
- Various Dates — (Cincinnati Beacon) Wiki entry for Victoria Wulsin
- A PDF of Wulsin’s report with Executive Summary is no longer available at the link where it was present in November 2006.
Except of course, that by closing the investigation, the Ohio Medical Board has essentially concluded that Dr. Wulsin has NOT committed any ethical violation of her profession.
Her role in the study has been overblown, and those pushing the story had been relying on the pending investigation by the Ohio Medical Board as given their attacks some legitimacy. Now that the Ohio Medical Board has closed their investigation with no finding of any ethical impropriety, this line of attack has very little juice in it.
Comment by Modern Esquire — June 5, 2008 @ 2:28 pm
#1, the fundamental truth of what I wrote in 2006, and just reiterated here, is independent of any Board finding, and hasn’t, changed, one, bit.
Comment by TBlumer — June 5, 2008 @ 4:11 pm
Tom - Another point which merits attention.
Phil Heimlich is the longtime vice president of the Heimlich Institute. Therefore he has full knowledge and access to all the financial and medical records associated with the Africa experiments and Dr. Wulsin’s participation. (Modern Esquire, sorry to burst your bubble, but she was being groomed to take over the Heimlich Institute and to supervise the Africa project. Don’t believe me? Tom or anyone else, ask her point blank and see if she’ll go on the record.)
Here’s my point, one which is indisputable and should give pause to Dr. Wulsin’s supporters. If she’s not telling the truth and was, in fact, more deeply involved with the Africa experiments, Republican Phil Heimlich has her on a lifetime leash. He can release documents to the medical board and other oversight authorities and destroy her. In other words, he would have her in the palm of his hand.
Sure, Modern Esquire may respond that’s only “if she’s not telling the truth.” But that little “if” has already come back to haunt her and, who knows, perhaps more ghosts have yet to spring from the “malariotherapy” closet.
Comment by Lucretia McEvil — June 6, 2008 @ 8:53 am
#3, thx for the points.
Based on what you’re saying, I would think if Phil had become competitive in the spring in OH-02, which he apparently never did, he could have been stung by the same malariotherapy problem. And if he releases docs, does he not also “destroy” himself?
Like your handle. It took some Blood, Sweat & Tears to come up with that one. :–>
Comment by TBlumer — June 6, 2008 @ 10:17 am
>And if he releases docs, does he not also “destroy†himself?
That depends on what’s in the files. He would only have to leak a little to prove that she’s been lying all along. If that happened, Dr. Vic would be kaput. Even a toady like Coryell might finally give up the familiar “see no evil” acrobatics he’s been engaging in to defend her sorry self.
Now fast-forward. It’s January 2009 and newly-elected congresswoman Victoria Wells Wulsin MD PhD has taken the oath of office, the gates of opportunity have opened for her and the future looks quite, quite bright. As for Phil Heimlich, his radio show has flopped and he’s unemployed again.
Under those conditions, in a game of extortion chicken, who do you think would blink first, Vic or her ex-boss with the files, Phil?
Comment by Lucretia McEvil — June 6, 2008 @ 5:26 pm
Tom and all Republicans out there - Here’s another amusing angle.
For the sake of argument, assume Dr. Wulsin has bad stuff to hide about her association with the Heimlich Institute. (Yes, I know that’s difficult to imagine.) If that’s the case, there’s one person with the power to sink her. That person is Heimlich Institute vice president and loyal Republican Phil Heimlich.
Chew on that for awhile. If Wulsin’s hiding dirt and Phil doesn’t hand over the information to expose her, then Wulsin wins the race, Phil deserves a lion’s share of the blame.
If I were Barry Bennett (Jean Schmidt’s chief of staff) or a Republican blogger, I’d start pressuring Phil to ante up or else suffer the prospect of being the Republican responsible for handing the Ohio 2nd to the Dems. (He already gave them Hamilton County, remember?) For Phil, that would be the final nail in the coffin of his political career.
Better yet, Barry, try the honey vs. vinegar approach. Offer Phil a job in exchange for the information, something where he can’t break anything or steal the silver or appoint Ron Roberts. Then everybody’s happy.
Well, maybe not Jeff Coryell.
Comment by Lucretia McEvil — June 6, 2008 @ 8:34 pm
#6, this IS intriguing.
Comment by TBlumer — June 6, 2008 @ 9:10 pm
[…] will remain so. I’m still waiting for one, just one Enquirer article. See more at Bizzy and the Dean of […]
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