Friday, October 1, 2010

US Government Ordered To Say 7 Million "Hail Marys", 8 Million "Our Fathers" As Act Of Contrition. Opts Out, Muttering, "Oops My Bad" Instead

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States apologized on Friday for an experiment conducted in the 1940s in which U.S. government researchers deliberately infected Guatemalan prison inmates, women and mental patients with syphilis.

In the experiment, aimed at testing the then-new drug penicillin, inmates were infected by prostitutes and later treated with the antibiotic.

"The sexually transmitted disease inoculation study conducted from 1946-1948 in Guatemala was clearly unethical," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement.

"Although these events occurred more than 64 years ago, we are outraged that such reprehensible research could have occurred under the guise of public health. We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices," the statement said.

The experiment, which echoed the infamous 1960s Tuskegee study in which black American men were deliberately left untreated for syphilis, was revealed by Susan Reverby, professor of women's studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

She found out about it this year while following up on a book about Tuskegee and, unusually for a researcher, informed the U.S. government before she published her findings.

"In addition to the penitentiary, the studies took place in an insane asylum and an army barracks," Reverby said in a statement.

"In total, 696 men and women were exposed to the disease and then offered penicillin. The studies went on until 1948 and the records suggest that despite intentions not everyone was probably cured," she said.

TUSKEGEE LINK

Her findings, to be published in January in the Journal of Policy History, link the Tuskegee and Guatemala studies.

"In 1946-48, Dr. John C. Cutler, a Public Health Service physician who would later be part of the Syphilis Study in Alabama in the 1960s and continue to defend it two decades after it ended in the 1990s, was running a syphilis inoculation project in Guatemala, co-sponsored by the PHS, the National Institutes of Health, the Pan American Health Sanitary Bureau (now the Pan American Health Organization), and the Guatemalan government," she wrote.

"It was the early days of penicillin and the PHS was deeply interested in whether penicillin could be used to prevent, not just cure, early syphilis infection, whether better blood tests for the disease could be established, what dosages of penicillin actually cured infection, and to understand the process of reinfection after cures."

The full paper is available at http://www.wellesley.edu/WomenSt/Synopsis%20Reverby%20'Normal%20Exposure'.pdf.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, said regulation prohibited such "risky and unethical" research today. He said the revelations could damage efforts to encourage people to take part in medical research today.

"I think the track record in past 20-30 years has been quite remarkable," Collins told reporters in a telephone briefing.

"But we all recognize that the Tuskegee study which involved this same Dr. Cutler did great damage to the trust ... particularly from the African-American community and for medical research."

Arturo Valenzuela, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, said it was not yet clear whether any compensation would be offered. It was also not clear whether any of the people who were experimented upon could be traced, but said an investigation had been launched.

Collins said there were no records of the study at NIH other than the title of the original grant.

Cutler retired as a professor at the University of Pittsburgh in 1985 and died in 2003.


By the way, the fishing was incredible. I caught 4 used condoms, a mutated catfish with vestigial legs who appeared to be muttering something in Arabic, & a white Nike tennis shoe with a foot still in it.
I washed out the condoms for re-use, gutted the catfish (strangely its internal organs radiated with a weird green glow) for dinner, and, luckily, the shoe was my size. I'll be going back tomorrow to see if I can find the other shoe. The foot makes an incredibly handy paperweight.

13 comments:

Morocco Bama said...

I wonder when they'll get around to the 5 million plus murdered Vietnamese, because let's face it, if the U.S. didn't meddle in that affair, they never would have died.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlpSBB3tts4

Bigfoot said...

Richard your article reminded me of this..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLmCCX4Drtw

And also the contaminated vaccines and the experimentation of them on various groups..

www.newdawnmagazine.com/Articles
/Vaccine_Genocide.html

MB, cheers for the Vietnam doco link. These people really know how to extinguish life don't they? The only talent the pathetic fucks ever acquired.
Many other countries joined in on that blood orgy, as they are in the current ones today.

Cock n' Load, -Bf

Bigfoot said...

Richard your article reminded me of this..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLmCCX4Drtw

And also the contaminated vaccines and the experimentation of them on various groups..

www.newdawnmagazine.com/Articles
/Vaccine_Genocide.html

MB, cheers for the Vietnam doco link. These people really know how to extinguish life don't they? The only talent the pathetic fucks ever acquired.
Many other countries joined in on that blood orgy, as they are in the current ones today.

Cock n' Load, -Bf

Morocco Bama said...

And, of course, let's not forget the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In Truman's own words:

"The experiment has been an overwhelming success."

".....achieved good results."

Truth Game by John Pilger

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8188389096643641702#

Morocco Bama said...

That cartoon before Pilger starts talking is interesting. It assumes that the nuclear weapon would be the last weapon. Ha!! How naive. If only they knew what we know now when they made that cartoon. We're beyond nuclear annihilation now. Remember, we're pets....to be tortured and experimented on endlessly, so there will be no nuclear vaporization for us. That would be too kind and merciful. It's too quick and there's not enough suffering. Therefore, we must let the smart pets know that nukes are out, hence the aliens won't let us use them. How convenient those aliens are.

ericswan said...

scroogle mycoplasma/scott for the horrors of 1952.

Leaving on a jet plane will get back to the pack from the other side of the gom.

just_another_dick said...

Gentlemen, the saddest fucking thing is we probably only know the tip of the iceberg.

These people appear to have very twisted imaginations & endless amounts of money.

We can't toss retirees a few years of freedom before they kick the bucket, but we can drown sociopaths in dollars so they can turn us into lab rats.

What other species pays for its own enslavement?

Morocco Bama said...

I think this commercial is a most perfect metaphor for it all, don't you? And, the name is literal, making the metaphor that much more poignant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34wJt3pRY0w

Morocco Bama said...

See if you can spot Barbara Bush's picture on the Life Cereal Box in that commercial. That's appropriate, as well.

Morocco Bama said...

More experimentation.

It's one hell of an iceberg.

http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/project-gulf-impact-crew-poisoned-nazi-america

Bigfoot said...

More cereal goodness..

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b5bxrg5euA


#Lonely bio-warfare scientist seeks female companion for long walks on the beach, romantic candlelit dinners, and lazy nights on the couch watching vivisection videos. -Teddy Cockburn.

just_another_dick said...

Sorry gents, I've been working doubles so I'm just starting to watch your links. Many thanks.

Morocco Bama said...

Beware a foul crevice.......slouches towards Bethlehem?