Move over Bellesiles and Lott, there are some new kids on the block:
Three Maryland researchers have admitted fabricating interviews with teenagers for a study on AIDS prevention that received more than $1 million in federal funds.
Lajuane Woodard, Sheila Blackwell and Khalilah Creek were employed by the University of Maryland at Baltimore’s department of pediatrics as researchers on the study, funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The three admitted they made up interviews with teenagers, which they had claimed took place from May to August 2001, for the study on preventing the transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The fabrication was first reported in the journal Research USA.
This is so irritating and awful on so many levels I am just going to end this post right here, as I can not adequately describe my anger.
Mito
What’s the big deal? Conservatives didn’t care when Reagan wouldn’t fund AIDS research and look at how many people that slaughtered. This is only asking people a few questions on a survey.
Chris Lawrence
Nice to see the Agonist still has time to post comments these days…
Phil
Mito: No. Pay attention. These people took $1 million of your and my tax money and squandered it by making shit up to get the results they wanted on an AIDS prevention project.
I’m also curious as to how you think pre-1985 AIDS funding would have solved anything at all, given that:
A) The lack of funding didn’t actually slaughter anyone — getting the disease did, and the vectors were fairly well understood before 1985, and
B) 20 years later, we STILL don’t have a cure, so it’s not like we would have otherwise had one but for Reagan’s foot-dragging.
Mito
Nice act of hindsight, Reagan apparently looked into the future,saw there was no point in extra funding for AIDS research and so gave the money to the rich with a clear conscience. He seemed to believe it was an act of divine retribution.
Look for example at the people that caught AIDS because needle exchange wasn’t allowed. Those were all unnecessary deaths.
When an epidemic of this magnitude was starting people should have been on top of it from the start, with advertising to make people aware of it. Many other countries allowed needle exchange and alerted people to the dangers and saved a lot of lives. Reagan was against all that and as a result a lot of people died unnecessarily.