What is Allegation Drafting & Consultation in Research Integrity Law?

Each member of the research community has an obligation to maintain integrity and report potential integrity and misconduct concerns to research leadership. It can be necessary to contact a Research Integrity Lawyer when redactions are denied and allegation drafting becomes necessary.

The bizarre anti-vaccine paper a Florida professor has been trying to have retracted to no avail

R. Speth – Professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Nova Southeastern University spent 19 months trying
to get two of the world’s largest medical publishers to retract an article he considers to be a
“travesty” of pseudoscientific claims and overtly anti-vaccination bias. During the process he uncovered slipshod management of a journal’s editorial board that angered a former FDA commissioner.

The paper in question was published in 2018 in Clinical and Translational Medicine. Titled
(awkwardly)  “ Cancer; an induced disease of twentieth century! Induction of tolerance, increased
entropy and ‘Dark Energy’: loss of biorhythms (Anabolism v. Catabolism) ,” it was written by
Mahin Khatami, formerly a program director at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Khatami attended a Q&A session – where she stormed the microphone and shot into a screed
in which she likened [the Cancer Human Biobank] to a scientific Ponzi scheme & accused Dr.
Compton of harbouring a five year conspiracy against her – it came to a halt when an audience
member approached her and removed her.

Her claims include:

• That the polio vaccine was linked to human cancers
• Cancer projects are promoted and funded by decision makers are reductionist approaches that are wrong and unethical and resulted in loss of millions of precious lives and financial toxicity to society
• Public vaccination with pathogen-specific vaccines (e.g. flue, HPV) weakens and does not promote immunity
• Hypothesized that the induction of tolerance creates “dark energy” and increase entropy and temperature in cancer microenvironment allowing cancer proliferation and mitosis-increased glucose metabolism among others
• Urges independent professionals and policy makers to take a closer look at cancer and stop the scientific/medical ponzi schemes of a powerful group that control a drug dependent sick society before all hopes promoting public health evaporate

Since leaving NIH in 2009 Khatami has been a huge critic of vaccines and has been praised by the anti-vaccine group SaneVax. Her writings hostile to vaccination include 2016 paper in Clinical and Translational Medicine titled “ Safety concerns and hidden agenda behind HPV vaccines: another generation of drug-dependent society?”; and “Book review on cancer research and therapy: safety concerns for HPV vaccination of young generation, paid by Obamacare and V.P. Biden Moonshot Initiative.”

In the acknowledgements section Khatami stated that: “The author’s experimental studies were established on experimental models of acute and chronic ocular inflammatory diseases, at the University of Pennsylvania, with a support team of scientists headed by John H. Rockey in 1980’s. Analyses of original data that resulted in a series of ‘accidental’ discoveries on the role of inflammation in time-course kinetics of altered immune dynamics toward multistep carcinogenesis and angiogenesis were extended at the National Cancer Institute (NCI)/NIH since 1998 and despite heavy opposition, denial and rejection of submitted proposals by members of the cancer establishment.”

So Speth & a student of his wrote to the journal in April 2019 asking for an investigation into the paper noting its author’s anti-vaccine stances. They received a series of anodyne responses, referrals to other employees within the publishing house and other brush-offs which Speth says have continued to this day. There were some issues with the publisher – eventually Wiley had taken it over and according to Speth completely replaced its list of editorial advisors. For Speth – having the article removed had become almost a crusade and he is convinced about the righteousness of the mission: While this paper will never have the adverse impact that the Wakefield paper had, it is a mockery of science at a time when science is under the most unprecedented attack since the Pope’s inquisition of Galileo for blasphemy.

Scientific Research can be full of unexpected legal hazards

GF Scipione is a highly motivated and pragmatic lawyer with focused professional experience in research integrity, responsible conduct of research and misconduct. Gianfranco can help you navigate the legal field of scientific research so you can limit liability and preserve your valued integrity. Take preventive measures and draft an Authorship Agreement. As an intelligent professional you can benefit from highly skilled legal representation. Former Researcher, Current Lawyer, the right representation for Research Integrity Law. Book a consultation today.