Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati

Photo courtesy of here.

Two major political sites—PolitickerOH and Talking Points Memo—have picked up on the Vic Wulsin malariotherapy stories.  These publications have no history of exhibiting an “anti-Wulsin bias,” and they have no reputation of being right-winged and pro-Schimdt.  So how does Dr. Vic come across on a state-wide and national stage concerning the little problem of the Heimlich Institute’s weird medical experiments?

David DeWitt, at PolickerOH, has an item entitled ”Schmidt hits Wulsin for ‘malariotherapy’ ties in fundraising letter.” DeWitt writes, “Wulsin hoped to put the matter to rest after meeting with the State Medical Board in April to discuss her connection to the institute. Wulsin had been hired by the institute in 2004 to analyze literature studying the malaria bacteria as a treatment for HIV/AIDS.”

DeWitt also hosts what amounts to a debate between Wulsin’s and Schmidt’s press secretaries.

Team Wulsin:

Franck pointed out to PolitickerOH.com that a complaint can be filed with the state medical board by anyone at any time. In this case, the board found no merit to the complaint itself.

“Anyone can file a complaint that is untrue, or false or fictitious with the medical board,” he said. “The medical board decides if the claim has any merit whatsoever they will look into it. And the medical board decided on the face of this complaint, there was no reason for them to take any action.”

Franck pointed out that the campaign had released a statement saying the board found that the anonymous complaint had no merit.

“Jean Schmidt knew that when she wrote this letter. She knew it when she mailed it to her constituents. She knew she was lying,” he said.

“She isn’t running the race like any incumbent I’ve ever seen. Most incumbents run for reelection on the strength of what they’ve done in office. Schmidt seems to be starting the general election campaign with nothing but false attacks on Vic.”

Team Schimdt:

Schmidt press secretary Barry Bennett said the letter wasn’t suggesting Wulsin participated in the experiments.

“We know that she wasn’t there when they got injected,” he said. “Our problem with her behavior is she was called in to review all this. And she wrote a nice report to the organization about how they could take this to the next step. Never once did she call the authorities. Never once did she say that it’s immoral. Never once did she say that it’s unjust. She wrote her report. They wrote her a check. And she cashed it.”

DeWitt chose to conclude his story with some excerpts from the report Wulsin wrote for the Heimlich Institute, “Immunotherapy and Beyond.” (Remember, it was Wulsin’s suggestion to rename “malariotherapy” to “immunotherapy” due to the former’s bad press.)

Wulsin concludes in her report,

“Immunotherapy claims a fascinating history of effectiveness for another largely sexually transmitted epidemic. Its safety was demonstrated over much of the twentieth century, precluding the necessity of Phase I clinical trials for replicating its use for HIV. Phase II clinical trials have resulted in positive, though discrepant, results in 20 Chinese and 8 East African HIV-positive individuals. Currently the Heimlich Institute has no formal association with either of these trials, although the sponsor of the East African work maintains contact with the Heimlich Institute and shares results regularly. No written protocol is available for this innovative work in which patients acquire malaria naturally and are followed thereafter.

Further field studies of Immunotherapy, including Phase III and IV clinical trials, require the verification of the encouraging results from East Africa, elaboration on discrepancies between them and the results from the Phase II trial in China, and professional dissemination and transparent discussion with scientists, physicians, and other stakeholders.”

One must wonder why DeWitt ended his article this way.  This is Wulsin, in her own words.  What does it mean?

Meanwhile, Eric Kleefeld over at TPM wrote a piece entitled ”House GOPer Accuses Dem Foe Of ... ‘Grotesque Medical Experiments’ On Human Guinea Pigs.” Check out this paragraph:

The “grotesque medical experiments” charge appears to be a reference to some 2004 work that Wulsin did with the Heimlich Institute in Ohio. She examined data that was supplied to her as part of a literature review, taken from pre-existing studies, of experimental AIDS therapies that Wulsin concluded didn’t work.

Kleefeld goes on to quote Kevin Franck, who claims Wulsin “never participated in any of the studies.” But the statement does not seem to respond directly to the previous passage by Kleefeld:  “She examined data...”

Is examining raw data the same as “participating”? 

Frank is quoted further:  “She was never in a position to stop any of them while they were in progress ... Jean Schmidt knew that those complaints and those allegations had no merit when she mailed the letter.”

This quote indicates that the Heimlich Institute experiments are no longer in progress.  One must wonder how Team Wulsin would change their story if it were discovered that the experiments are ongoing!

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