-----Original Message-----
From: Mathea Quinones [mailto:xxxxxx@NEU.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 2:07 PM
To: xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG
Subject: [RESADM-L] File Attachment for Article about increased scrutiny of NIH grants
Does anyone have a PDF copy of the referenced article. I have found the hard copy but a PI has requested a PDF and I cannot open the on-line version, nor the attached.
Thanks,
Mathea
_________________________________________________
Mathea Quiñones
Coordinator, Institute on Urban Health Research
Bouvé College of Heath Sciences
Northeastern University
360 Huntington Avenue, Stearns 503
Boston, Massachusetts, 02115-5000
Phone: (617) 373-7621
Fax: (617) 373-7309
----- Forwarded by Mathea W Quinones/Health Sciences/NEU on 04/23/2003 02:05 PM -----
Allison C Morrill 04/22/2003 04:12 PM
To: Samantha Dunn/Health Sciences/xxxxxx@NEU, Mathea W Quinones/Health Sciences/xxxxxx@NEU
cc:
Subject: File Attachment for Article about increased scrutiny of NIH grants
the reference
----- Forwarded by Allison C Morrill/Health Sciences/NEU on 04/22/2003 04:12 PM -----
"Angela Pattatucci Aragon" <xxxxxx@rcm.upr.edu> 04/22/2003 01:53 PM
To: "Angela Pattatucci Aragon" <xxxxxx@rcm.upr.edu>, Margarita Alegría <xxxxxx@charesearch.org>, "Adey Nyamathi" <xxxxxx@sonnet.ucla.edu>, "Alex Carballo Dieguez" <xxxxxx@columbia.edu>, "Alexander Ortega" <xxxxxx@email.med.yale.edu>, "Allen Gifford" <xxxxxx@ucsd.edu>, "Allen Omoto" <xxxxxx@cgu.edu>, "Allen Tien" <xxxxxx@mdlogix.com>, "Allison Morrill" <xxxxxx@neu.edu>, "Amie Neilsen" <xxxxxx@mail.as.miami.edu>, "Andrea Sankar" <xxxxxx@wayne.edu>, "Andrew Kaplan" <xxxxxx@med.unc.edu>, "Anita Raj" <xxxxxx@bu.edu>, "Anke Ehrhardt" <xxxxxx@aol.com>, "Ann McCauley" <xxxxxx@pcdc.org>, "Ann Williams" <xxxxxx@yale.edu >, "Anne Bowen" <xxxxxx@uwyo.edu>, "Anthony D'Augelli" <xxxxxx@psu.edu>, "Antonia Abbey" <xxxxxx@med.wayne.edu>, "Antonio Estrada" <xxxxxx@u.arizona.edu>, "Barbara Dancy" <xxxxxx@uic.edu>, Barbara Marín <xxxxxx@cdc.gov>, "Barbara Tinsley" <xxxxxx@ucrac1.ucr.edu>, "Beatrice J. Krauss" <xxxxxx@ndri.org>, "Blanca Ortiz Torres" <xxxxxx@coqui.net>, "Brenda Booth" <xxxxxx@exchange.uams.edu>, "Bruce Rapkin" <xxxxxx@mskcc.org>, "Bryan Page" <xxxxxx@miami.edu>, "Carl Kendall" <xxxxxx@tulane.edu>, "Carl Latkin" <xxxxxx@jhsph.edu>, "Carmen Albizu" <xxxxxx@rcm.upr.edu>, "Charles Hinkin" <xxxxxx@ucla.edu>, "Charlotte Brown" <xxxxxx@msx.upmc.edu>, "Cheryl Gore-Felton" <xxxxxx@mcw.edu>, "Clyde McCoy" <xxxxxx@med.miami.edu>, "Colleen K. DiIorio" <xxxxxx@sph.emory.edu>, "Cynthia Gomez" <xxxxxx@psg.ucsf.edu>, "Dale Chitwood" <xxxxxx@miami.edu>, "David Bell" <xxxxxx@affiliatedsystems.com>, "David Greenberg" <xxxxxx@is3.nyu.edu>, "David Paltiel" <xxxxxx@yale.edu>, "David S. Metzger" <xxxxxx@mail.trc.upenn.edu>, "Deanna Kerrigan" <xxxxxx@jhsph.edu>, "Debra Murphy" <xxxxxx@mednet.ucla.edu>, "Diane Morrison" <xxxxxx@u.washington.edu>, "Dianne Montgomery" <xxxxxx@mailer.fsu.edu>, "Dolores Albarracin" <xxxxxx@ufl.edu>, "Dorinda Welle" <xxxxxx@ndri.org>, "Duane McBride" <xxxxxx@andrews.edu>, "E. J. Brown" <xxxxxx@mail.ucf.edu>, "E. James Essien" <xxxxxx@tsu.edu>, "Edward Morse" <xxxxxx@tulane.edu>, "Elinore McCance-Katz" <xxxxxx@montefiore.org>, "Ellie Schoenbaum" <xxxxxx@montefiore.org>, "Elliott Fisher" <xxxxxx@dartmouth.edu>, "Emil Chiauzzi" <xxxxxx@inflexxion.com>, "Eric Wright" <xxxxxx@iupui.edu>, "Faye Belgrave" <xxxxxx@saturn.vcu.edu>, "Frank Wong" <xxxxxx@gwu.edu>, "Fred Blow" <xxxxxx@umich.edu>, "Gail Ironson" <xxxxxx@miami.edu>, "Gail Wyatt" <xxxxxx@mednet.ucla.edu>, "Geri Donenberg" <xxxxxx@psych.uic.edu>, "Gina M. Wingood" <xxxxxx@sph.emory.edu>, "Gladys Escalona de Motta" <xxxxxx@goliath.cnnet.clu.edu>, "Glenn Wagner" <xxxxxx@rand.org>, "Grace Macalino" <xxxxxx@brown.edu>, "Gregory Zimet" <xxxxxx@iupui.edu>, "Guillermo Bernal" <xxxxxx@worldnet.att.net>, "Gustavo Heudebert" <xxxxxx@uabmc.edu>, "Harvey Siegal" <xxxxxx@wright.edu>, Heriberto Marín <xxxxxx@rcm.upr.edu>, "Holly Hagan" <xxxxxx@ndri.org>, "Isiaah Crawford" <xxxxxx@luc.edu>, "Issac Montoya" <xxxxxx@affiliatedsystems.com>, "J. Hampton Atkinson MD" <xxxxxx@ucsd.edu >, "J. J. Card" <xxxxxx@socio.com>, "Jacqueline Watson" <xxxxxx@aol.com>, "James Pennebaker" <xxxxxx@psy.utexas.edu>, "Jane Simoni" <xxxxxx@u.Washington.edu>, "Margaret S. Miles" <xxxxxx@email.unc.edu>, "Margaret Weeks" <xxxxxx@hartnet.org>, Margarita Alegría <xxxxxx@charesearch.org>, "Marguerita Lightfoot" <xxxxxx@ucla.edu>, "Maria Cecilia Zea" <xxxxxx@gwu.edu>, "Maru Fernandez-Esquer" <xxxxxx@sph.uth.tmc.edu>, "Mary Ann Chiasson" <xxxxxx@mhra.org>, "Michael Clatts" <xxxxxx@ndri.org>, "Michael deArellano" <xxxxxx@musc.edu>, "Michele Kipke" <xxxxxx@chla.usc.edu>, "Michele Shedlin" <xxxxxx@aol.com>, "Milagritos Gonzalez" <xxxxxx@rumac.upr.clu.edu>, "Mildred Vera" <xxxxxx@rcm.upr.edu>, "Patricia Stevens" <xxxxxx@uwm.edu>, "Patty Kissinger" <xxxxxx@tulane.edu>, "Rafaela Robles" <xxxxxx@uccaribe.edu>, "Rick Altice" <xxxxxx@yale.edu>, "Rick Goldsworthy" <xxxxxx@academicedge.net>, "Robert Schilling" <xxxxxx@ucla.edu>, "Robert Trotter" <xxxxxx@nau.edu>, "Ron Frezieres" <xxxxxx@cfhc.org>, Ruth Ríos <xxxxxx@rcm.upr.edu>, "Sally Zierler" <xxxxxx@brown.edu>, "Sam Friedman" <xxxxxx@ndri.org>, "Sarah Lord" <xxxxxx@inflexxion.com>, "Sharon Rae Jenkins" <xxxxxx@unt.edu>, "Simon Rosser" <xxxxxx@umn.edu>, "Stephen Ferrando" <xxxxxx@med.cornell.edu>, "Steve Pinkerton" <xxxxxx@mcw.edu>, "Susan Folkman" <xxxxxx@ocim.ucsf.edu>, "Susan Rosenthal" <xxxxxx@utmb.edu>, "Suzanne Wenzel" <xxxxxx@rand.org>, "Tammy Tengs" <xxxxxx@uci.edu>, "Terri Fried" <xxxxxx@yale.edu>, "TK Logan" <xxxxxx@pop.uky.edu>, Tomás Soto <xxxxxx@aol.com>, "Trish Case" <xxxxxx@hms.harvard.edu>
cc: "Janice Zeller" <xxxxxx@rushu.rush.edu>, "Jean Schensul" <xxxxxx@aol.com>, Jesús Ramírez-Valles <xxxxxx@uic.edu>, "Joann Glittenberg" <xxxxxx@nursing.arizona.edu>, "Joanne Lynn" <xxxxxx@rand.org>, "Joche Bauermeister" <xxxxxx@umich.edu>, "John Bolland" <xxxxxx@bama.ua.edu>, "John Jemmott" <xxxxxx@asc.upenn.edu>, "Jonathan Zenilman MD" <xxxxxx@jhmi.edu>, José Szapocznik <xxxxxx@miami.edu>, "Judith G. Rabkin" <xxxxxx@columbia.edu>, "Judy Moskowitz" <xxxxxx@ocim.ucsf.edu>, "Judy Sackoff" <xxxxxx@columbia.edu>, "Julia Arnsten" <xxxxxx@montefiore.org>, "Julianne Serovich" <xxxxxx@osu.edu>, "Julie Baldwin" <xxxxxx@nau.edu>, "Karen Seal" <xxxxxx@itsa.ucsf.edu>, "Karen Trocki" <xxxxxx@arg.org>, "Karina Walters" <xxxxxx@u.washington.edu>, "Karl Goodkin" <xxxxxx@mednet.med.miami.edu>, "Katharine Stewart" <xxxxxx@bmu.dopm.uab.edu>, "Kathy Ford" <xxxxxx@sph.umich.edu>, "Kathy Sikkema" <xxxxxx@yale.edu>, "Kaye Sly" <xxxxxx@jsums.edu>, "Kerry Evers" <xxxxxx@prochange.com>, "Lance Weinhardt" <xxxxxx@mcw.edu>, "Larry Brown" <xxxxxx@lifespan.org>, "Larry D. Icard" <xxxxxx@ssw.upenn.edu>, "Laura Otto-Salaj" <xxxxxx@post.its.mcw.edu>, "Laura Roberts" <xxxxxx@salud.unm.edu>, "Leslie Clark" <xxxxxx@bmu.dopm.uab.edu>, "Linda B. Cottler" <xxxxxx@EPI.WUSTL.EDU>, "Lisa Moore" <xxxxxx@sfsu.edu>, "Lisa R. Metsch" <xxxxxx@med.miami.edu>, "Lucia Torian" <xxxxxx@aol.com>, "Luis Zayas" <xxxxxx@gwbmail.wustl.edu>, "Lynn Rew" <xxxxxx@mail.utexas.edu>, "Lynne Cooper" <xxxxxx@missouri.edu>, "Marc Gourevitch" <xxxxxx@montefiore.org>, "Marcela Raffaelli" <xxxxxx@unl.edu>, "Margaret Kelley" <xxxxxx@ou.edu>, María José Miguez Burbano <xxxxxx@med.miami.edu>, "Marianne Yoshioka" <xxxxxx@columbia.edu>, "Martha Lee" <xxxxxx@ucla.edu>, "Martina Morris" <xxxxxx@u.washington.edu>, "Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus" <xxxxxx@ucla.edu>, "Merrill Singer" <xxxxxx@aol.com>, "Michael Ross" <xxxxxx@utsph.sph.uth.tmc.edu>, "Michael Stein" <xxxxxx@brown.edu>, "Michael Sweat" <xxxxxx@jhsph.edu>, "Naihua Duan" <xxxxxx@mednet.ucla.edu>, "Nancy L. McCain" <xxxxxx@hsc.vcu.edu>, "Nancy Reynolds" <xxxxxx@osu.edu>, "Norma Ware" <xxxxxx@hms.harvard.edu>, "Patricia O'Campo" <xxxxxx@jhsph.edu>, "Peggy Dolcini" <xxxxxx@psg.ucsf.edu>, "Phillippe Cunningham" <xxxxxx@musc.edu>, "Priscilla Reddy" <xxxxxx@mrc.ac.za>, "Purnima Mane" <xxxxxx@popcouncil.org>, "Ricky Bluthenthal" <xxxxxx@rand.org>, "Robert Booth" <xxxxxx@uchsc.edu>, "Robert Carlson" <xxxxxx@wright.edu>, "Robert Heimer" <xxxxxx@yale.edu>, "Rosemary Ryan" <xxxxxx@u.washington.edu>, "Sana Loue" <xxxxxx@po.cwru.edu>, "Seth Kalichman" <xxxxxx@uconn.edu>, "Shenghan Lai" <xxxxxx@jhsph.edu>, "Steffanie Strathdee" <xxxxxx@jhsph.edu>, "Stephen Eyre" <xxxxxx@itsa.ucsf.edu>, "Susan Allen" <xxxxxx@uab.edu>, "Susan Rogers" <xxxxxx@rti.org>, "Susanne Montgomery" <xxxxxx@sph.llu.edu>, "Teresa Wright" <xxxxxx@itsa.ucsf.edu>, "Tim Heckman" <xxxxxx@oak.cats.ohiou.edu>, "Tom Patterson" <xxxxxx@ucsd.edu>, "Toni Villarruel" <xxxxxx@umich.edu>, "Trish Morokoff" <xxxxxx@uri.edu>, "Wendy Auslander" <xxxxxx@gwbmail.wustl.edu>, "Yasuhiro Yamamura" <xxxxxx@coqui.net>
Subject: File Attachment for Article about increased scrutiny of NIH grants
Several people have written indicating that they cannot open the file
attachment that I sent. The article appears in the current issue of Science
(vol. 300; April 18 2003) on page 403.
Angela
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Angela Pattatucci Aragon [mailto:xxxxxx@rcm.upr.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 10:04 AM
> Subject: Advice about increased scrutiny of NIH grants
>
> Hello everyone. I am sure that by now most of you have heard about
> increased scrutiny by Congress of HIV/AIDS grants funded by federal
> agencies and reports of the advice that some NIH program officers have
> been giving to grant applicants to "sanitize" the language in their grant
> applications, eliminating or changing words such as needle exchange, sex
> workers, transgender, men who have sex with men, etc. If you have not
> heard about this, I have attached an article below.
>
> As a former insider at the NIH and someone that has worked directly with
> all of you, I thought that I would write and clarify some things. First,
> this is not new. Congress oversees the workings of all federal agencies,
> and as such has the authority to scrutinize what they are doing. With
> that said, this behavior tends to cycle with upcoming elections. A member
> of Congress is trying to establish an "agenda", either for reelection or
> after the elections to have the necessary momentum to move into a chair
> spot of an important committee or sub-committee. Thus, they throw their
> weight around, create a stir for a while, and then it usually goes away.
> However, with in the current political climate, in particular the "either
> you're with us or you're against us" fascist mentality of the Bush regime
> that has led to a pseudo-McCarthyism environment, I do not think that it
> would be prudent to simply wait for this to disappear. The Bush
> administration has been very adept at diverting the public's attention
> away from salient issues through scapegoating. Notice from the attached
> article how the issues are being reframed (e.g. from scientific research
> on HIV prevention efforts with Asian sex workers to "legitimizing the
> exploitation of women"). If we sit and do nothing, we could very likely
> become a casualty of the Bush administration's "clean up" campaign.
>
> Before I suggest a course of action, I want to touch on another issue for
> which I am sure that all of you have grave concerns. Fortunately, I have
> good news. You will note from the attached article that Mr. Foster, a
> staff member of the House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy,
> and Human Resources made a specific request to Elias Zerhouni, Director of
> the NIH, for the names of study sections members that reviewed two
> specific grants focused on sex workers, along with the scores that they
> gave. This is not possible because of policies that the Center for
> Scientific Review (CSR) implemented several years ago to guard against
> this very thing. As you know, review meetings are closed. Once your
> score sheets are turned in at the end of the meeting, CSR has 3 days to
> enter them into a computer system called IMPAC II. The scores are entered
> according to an assigned number given to each reviewer, not by name. Once
> the scores are entered, a matrix is printed out and it is checked
> independently for accuracy. However, that person has no access to the
> names of review members. Once the matrix is determined accurate, the
> scores are "released". The process of releasing creates a mean score for
> each application and converts that mean score to a percentile ranking. It
> also erases the matrix and everything else in the system (e.g. reviewer
> assignment matrices, etc.) that could identify you. The score sheets are
> then shredded. The Scientific Review Administrator (SRA) will typically
> retain a copy of the reviewer assignment matrix in order to match
> critiques with applications. However, this too is shredded once the
> summary statements are released. So, here is what members of Congress can
> get: (1) a copy of the minutes of the review meeting (these provide only
> general information about date, time, place, and number of applications;
> (2) copies of summary statements for individual applications. As you
> know, these summary statements contain the critiques of assigned reviewers
> (without identifying them by name) and a copy of the review roster. Thus,
> you can be identified as being associated with the review meeting, but not
> identified as a specific reviewer for any particular application of the
> score that you gave it.
>
> This, of course, assumes that the system is working as it should
> (*smile*). SRA's have been known to retain master review assignment lists
> so that they will be able to reassign original reviewers to resubmitted
> applications. Although I do not know any SRA's that have done this, it is
> also conceivable that an SRA could retain the score sheets longer than
> they are supposed to. Thus, if you are concerned, let me suggest that you
> call the SRA in charge of the review committee on which you serve and
> instruct them to destroy all such records immediately. Identify the
> records by name (e.g. vote sheets, reviewer assignment lists). For the
> future, you might consider banning with other members of your review group
> and send a collective letter to the SRA with a carbon copy to Ellie
> Erhenfeld (Director of CSR) briefly outlining your concerns about reviewer
> confidentiality and requesting that they responding in writing with a
> guarantee that review materials that could potentially identify you as a
> specific reviewer of an application be destroyed after the review meeting.
>
> Finally, I come to advice about responding to the much bigger problem of
> "sanitizing" scientific inquiry. My feeling is that the best way to
> handle this is to organize an effort within your university to minimally
> send a letter with faculty signatures to senators and representatives in
> your state and IDEALLY to get university presidents within your state
> and/or will ban together as faculty to request a face-to-face forum with
> one or more members of Congress from your state to discuss this issue.
> Calls and letters to the NIH, CDC, DHHS, SAMHSA, etc. expressing opinions
> about the issue will likely have no affect at all, because the real
> problem is higher up. The only way to fight the Bush regime on this is to
> hold those elected officials that are supposed to be representing your
> constituencies in Congress responsible and to let them know that you care
> about this issue. Additionally, make sure that local and national press
> and media are informed that you have requested a meeting with members of
> Congress. This exposes their decision to meet or not to meet with you to
> public scrutiny.
>
> The article is attached below.
>
> Angela
>
> << File: dhhs2.pdf >>
>
>