The Ties that Bind

Katie Couric, a somewhat respected journalist, recently did a show about the dangers of human papillomavirus (“HPV”) vaccines.  I’m not a big fan of vaccines, and I know how anything that portrays today’s immunization program in a bad light is vehemently attacked by members of the pharmaceutical industry and their paid shills.  To see one of America’s leading news personalities actually tell the truth was refreshing.   It piqued my interest so much that I actually watched it.  The stories that the women on Couric’s show told were chilling. Much to my surprise <insert sarcasm here>, the pharmaceutical industry went for Couric’s throat after the program aired. After all, vaccines are a multi‐billion dollar industry with a lot to lose.  And we know how they hate to lose money.  Instead of actually investigating or looking into parents’ claims, they reacted like a pack of feral coyotes presented with a dead Deer.  (No sarcasm or anything on the choice of word “deer.” I’m sure some of you will understand that one.)  Couric’s Facebook page was littered with posts from people who advocate compliance with the current vaccine schedule who claimed to have absolutely no ties to, or payments from, the pharmaceutical industry.  Included among them were Dorit Reiss and several other people from the organization Voices for Vaccines.

Of recent interest on ageofautism.com (“Age of Autism” or “AofA”),  Dorit Reiss spends an unbelievable amount of time posting on every story on the internet dealing with vaccines trying to assure John and Jane Q. Public that there is nothing to see here, and please ignore the man behind the curtain.  I mean, this is a woman who has a pretty substantial education and job.  She did her undergrad research at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and received her Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy program at U. C. Berkley.  Good schools, no doubt, and magna cum laude at that.  Impressive.   She is currently employed as a Professor of Law at the University of California at Hastings.  She must be one hell of a busy woman, right? The more posts I saw of hers on Katie Couric’s Facebook page, the more I started to raise an eyebrow.  Just who is this woman who, on the surface, appears to be a busy professional?  She is listed as teaching nine classes at the U. C. Hastings Law School, so why and how is she posting on every vaccine story on the internet, sometimes hundreds of times? (I’m NOT being facetious either!)  I’m not the only person to wonder.  Christina Waldman discussed Ms. Reiss’s University’s odd demi-financial relationship with Kaiser Permanente in “Not Paid to Post?” Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, UC Hastings College of Law and Kaiser Permanente on Age of Autism.

As Waldman points out, Reiss’s employer recently collaborated in a joint endeavor of Kaiser Permanente, U. C.  San Francisco and U. C. Hastings College of Law, which was funded by The National Human Genome Research Institute – a GOVERNMENT ORGANZATION – which provided $778,000.  The new endeavor benefits Reiss’s employer as it provides a new student study center. The headline of the University of California Press Release says it all: “New Center Explores Ethical, Legal, Social Implications of Genomics in Health Care: Center is Multidisciplinary Effort of UCSF, Kaiser Permanente, U.C. Hastings College of Law” – which is in line with the classes Ms. Reiss teaches.  I’d say that’s benefiting from a government grant, indirectly if not directly ‐‐ it’s hard to say without taking a look at U. C. Hastings’ payroll for Ms. Reiss.

In addition, Ms. Reiss is “is quickly becoming the nation’s foremost legal expert about the potential for tort liability for parents who choose not to vaccinate their children,” according to the U. C. Hastings website.  A lawyer who is becoming the nation’s “foremost legal expert” on a subject?  It’s hard to imagine someone having a greater economic interest in the public image of the vaccine program, unless it is the vaccine manufacturers themselves.

Damn, that man behind the curtain is getting really annoying. I mean, Dorothy sees him pulling all the strings, you know?

Reiss is on the “Parent Advisory Board” for Voices for Vaccines  (“VFV”) which states on its website “Independence.  To allay concerns about conflicts of interest, we will accept no funding from companies that manufacture or distribute vaccines, nor from any government.”  It may be strictly true that the organization does not take money from vaccine manufacturers or governments, but does that mean the organization is independent?   I found otherwise.  Let’s see, how to explain?  Hrm.  Think classic Mafia money-laundering  operation and you will have the picture:  a many-layered network of intertwined organizations seemingly designed to deceive and obfuscate where the money is coming from.  They are braided into parent organizations with multiple subsidiaries and multiple methods of cloaking sources of revenue.

Recently, there have been several articles on AofA about these “pharma shills” and their nefarious posting activities.  I would urge you to read The Lady Doth Protest Too Much: Voices for Vaccine (sic) is a Top‐down Front Operation Launched by a CDC Partner in 2008, by John Stone.  Mr. Stone unearthed quite a few disturbing relationships between the CDC, Emory University, VFV, The Task Force for Child Survival and Development (renamed The Task Force for Global Health, Inc. in 2009), the Center for Vaccine Equity and Global Health Solutions <Not so> Ironically, Mr. Stone also found that VFV, “is a subdivision of The Task Force for Global Health’s ‘Immunizations and Vaccines: Center for Vaccine Equity,’ with Dr. Alan R. Hinman (a CDC veteran) the director of both the wider operation and Voices for Vaccines . . . with ‘Task Force for Vaccine Equity’ being funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Merck and Novartis.”   Hrm.  Thank you for finding that, Mr. Stone.

So let’s recap here, because it gets a little bit confusing:  VFV, a nonprofit organization, is apparently a subsidiary of an organization called “The Task Force for Global Health, Inc.” (“TFGH”), which is itself a subsidiary of Global Health Solutions (“GHS”).  The Director of VFV is Dr. Alan Hinman, a man with strong CDC ties.

So what exactly does it mean to be a “subsidiary” of a parent nonprofit?  According to Thompson & Thompson:

At all times, provided that appropriate bylaw provisions are adopted and maintained, the parent has the legal authority to hold the subsidiary accountable to meet “bottom line” financial objectives, to pursue acceptable policy mandates, to fulfill its charitable mission (if a nonprofit subsidiary) and to otherwise conduct its affairs in a manner pleasing to the parent (emphasis mine).

And according to nonprofitlawblog.com:

One benefit for the parent of a parent-subsidiary structure is the element of control. . .  Therefore, the parent is able to exercise substantial control over the subsidiary by controlling who is on the board and how the organization is to be governed.

This makes it clear that far from being a “grassroots” organization, led by concerned parents, as VFV would have you believe, it is actually controlled by TFGH, an organization with very strong vaccine industry ties.

If you look up “The Center for Vaccine Equity” (which is funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Merck and Novartis, remember?), you are redirected to TFGH, which has the same address as GHS, which has the same address as VFV:  325 Swanton Way, Decatur, GA 30030.   Hrm.

Center for Vaccine Equity

Address for Voices for Vaccines

Address for Global Health Solutions

Task Force for Global Health: 325 Swanton Way, Decatur, GA

Seeking employment?  Want to work for the TFGH?  GHS?  The Task Force for Vaccine Equity?  You’ll be promptly redirected to Emory University’s Human Resources Department.  Concerns in the previous articles that I linked to hint at a very convoluted relationship between Emory University, the CDC and all of these GHS entities.  You just can’t make this stuff up.

VFV’s Science Advisory Board lists as a member Dr. Paul A. Offit, Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Vaccine Education Center.  He’s also the co-inventor of RotaTeq, a rotavirus vaccine recommended for universal use in infants by the CDC (which has recently been associated with increased risk of Intussusception, a serious intestinal illness).  Hrm.  Another conflict of interest?

Dr. Offit has repeatedly said that he gave his rights to the RotaTeq patent to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.  What he forgets to mention, however, is the “life-changing windfall” millions he received  when Children’s Hospital sold that patent for $182 million.  Even an otherwise extremely slanted article in Philadelphia Magazine, portraying Offit as a ministering angel with the patience of a saint, managed to point that out.

In a 2008 rally held in Washington, D.C. where autism parents from across the U.S. gathered to voice their concerns about the safety of some vaccines, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (Bobby Kennedy’s son), sided with the parents asking for reform in the vaccine manufacturing industry.  He said the following to the vast crowd of parents, as reported by Philadelphia Magazine:

Philadelphia Magazine: Will this Doctor Hurt My Baby?

Once again, we have a man with serious conflicts of interest being touted as the authority on the subject of all things immunization, yet he has a personal financial interest in that very industry.  Dr. Offit, or Dr. All Profit as I like to call him, has brought about a situation in which his opining undermines the very people he is trying to reach because he is perceived as being completely biased (rightly so).

VFV lists Stanley A. Plotkin, MD as being on the scientific board as well. But wait, what’s this?  He’s also an adviser for Sanofi Pasteur, developed the rubella vaccine and helped to develop the rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq.  He was Paul Offit’s colleague at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Hrm.

Next on the Scientific Advisory Board is Deborah L. Wexler, MD, also a member of the scientific board of the TFGH, VFV’s parent organization.  She is also the founder and executive director of the Immunization Action Coalition (“IAC”), a consultant and advisor to the general recommendation on Immunization at the CDC, co‐chairs the national Adult Vaccine Policy Group and is on the Vaccine Policy Education Center at . . . Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia!  And wait . . . She helped to further develop the Hepatitis B vaccine and worked with Paul Offit at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.  You don’t say!

When  speaking to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Dr. Wexler said the following:

:

Dr. Wexler, a scientific advisory board member of VFV (which claims “independence” from the CDC and the vaccine industry), publicly said that she has ties to both pharma and government, and other foundations, which seem likely to include The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  That “funding” amounted to well over $7 million for the years 2007 to 2011.

Dr. Wexler is paid a salary of $109,277 from her nonprofit organization, the IAC.  She seems like a pretty busy woman.  She’s a physician, an advisor to the CDC, on the board of directors at TFGH . . . Exactly how does she work 46 hours per week at her nonprofit?

In addition to her own salary, the Immunization Action Coalition also supports Dr. Wexler’s daughter:

So VFV claims financial “independence” from manufacturers of vaccines and their government sponsors, but it is controlled by a parent organization with very strong ties to those manufacturers and government entities, and every single member of its scientific advisory board has profited personally and significantly from the vaccine program that VFV was created to defend.

Now let’s take a look at TFGH, which is itself a subsidiary of Global Health Solutions (GHS), which are both housed in the same building as VFV.  For fiscal year 2012, the Task Force for Global Health listed their total revenue at $32,673,322.  Key players include the following:

Jane Thorpe is listed as the Chair of the Board of Directors for TFGH. Well, Ms. Thorpe is said to be considered one of the most admired attorneys in New York, given that she is one of the best product liability attorneys in the country.  Oh yeah, sorry . . . forgot to tell you that she was an in‐house attorney for pharma giant Wyeth.  She also successfully defended 3M and the McGhan Medical Corporation over liabilities with breast implants.  From her firm’s own website: “Since then, she has successfully defended pharmaceutical, technology, and food and beverage companies in complex product liability matters regarding Fen‐phen diet supplements, methadone, polio vaccines and asbestos.” Something to be proud of, I guess? Defending corporate giants against people who were hurt by their product.  Maybe she’ll be the next Time Magazine person of the year.  Unless she’s up against Miley Cyrus because, frankly, I find Miley’s licking hammers to be more productive than Ms. Thorpe’s entire career.

More on Ms. Thorpe from her law firm’s website:

Thorpe’s cross‐examinations of the Seroquel plaintiffs’ main experts, both in a multidistrict litigation and in state court in Delaware, led to the “terrific Daubert results which shaped the direction of the litigation,” said Andrew Goldman, a partner at Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum LLP who has worked with her on the Seroquel suits. “You don’t see in these mass torts the kind of track record she’s had with AstraZeneca,” Goldman said. “It’s very rare in Daubert in these cases.”

Fulbright & Jaworski LLP’s Stephanie Smith called Thorpe the “Daubert queen.”

Oh, she’s a queen all right.  Hrm.

Dr. Mark Rosenberg is TFGH’s President and CEO.  He’s  worked for the CDC, Emory University, and the World Health Organization.  He is currently a faculty member at Emory Medical School and the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.  Emory University has a unique relationship with the CDC, which is in an Atlanta suburb just like TFGH, GHS, and VFV.   And, Emory University now has a HHS University Partnership Program that offers significantly reduced tuition for . . . CDC employees.  Oh, by the way, the CDC offices are almost on the same road – one turn off ‐ as Emory University.  Hrm. Dr. Rosenberg is not only being paid as a faculty member of Emory University, but he is also being paid an annual sum of $292,800 by TFGH, who accepts money from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Merck and Novartis.

But wait, there’s more! According to Dr. Rosenberg’s biography, “His work has been published in trade and academic journals and he currently is researching new compounds to treat cancer and obesity, including receiving approval status for an investigational new drug that works with chemotherapy and a patent pending for an oral appetite suppressant.”

GREAT! Because we need more drugs like Fen‐Phen and drugs like Zimulti, for which Sanofi Pasteur agreed to pay $40,000,000 to settle a lawsuit for violating U.S. securities laws by failing to disclose data about Zimulti’s link to suicidal behavior.

Perhaps Sanofi should have hired Jane Thorpe to defend them?

Dr. William Foege, one of TFGH’s founders and an emeritus member of the board, was the Director of the CDC from 1977-1983, is a senior fellow for the Global Health Program (What? Another subsidiary?) and . . . drumroll please . . . a senior adviser to The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Hold up: He’s also an advisory board member and a professor at Emory University’s School of Public Health, which we now know has ties to the CDC,  TFGH, GHS, and VFV by extension, the <not so> independent subsidiary.

Dr. Dominique Kyelem, MD, PhD, MSc, Director of Programs for the Lymphatic Filariasis Support Center,  another TFGH subsidiary, who tragically passed away this past year, commenced his PhD studies as an off‐site student with funding from . . . The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  Dr. Kyelem worked for many years for the NTD (Neglected Tropical Diseases), which is funded by the World Health Organization (WHO),which of course has a relationship with the CDC, which is of course tied back to the CEO of TFGH, Mark Rosenberg.  I thought these people were unbiased?

Listed as “an inspiring role model and mentor” in TFGH’s Annual Report, Dr. Roy Vagelos.  The good Dr. Vagelos has quite an interesting background. Not only is he the Chairman of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Theravance Biopharma, Inc. (as of March 2012), he is the former President and CEO of Merck.  But wait, here’s the kicker: He’s one of the top advisors to the U. S. House of Representatives SUBCOMMITTEE OF LABOR, HEALTH, AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS to advocate for an increase in the funding of basic research that provides new knowledge in biology and disease critical for discovery of important new drugs and vaccines.  Now correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the Subcommittee of Labor, Health and Human Services has a pretty big hand in research dollars appropriated and granted by the U.S. Government.  In his defense, however, I do have to say that Dr. Vagelos has done some good things over the course of his career – like trying to keep life‐saving drugs at a fair market price and chastising pharmaceutical companies for putting profits over people.  Then again, I look at my kids and all I can think about is profit over people.  But he did help eradicate river blindness in West Africa, which is pretty cool.

This is all very confusing, I agree.  But there are even more subsidiaries of GHS, at least seven more.   I’d love to cover them all in this article, but we’re going to have to call this: “The Ties That Bind – First Installment,” because I have enough here for a book.

More to come.

~ Cindy Waeltermann

Cindy Waeltermann is the parent of two children with autism. In 2000, she founded the nationally known website autismlink.com, which led to founding the Autism Center of Pittsburgh with three brick and mortar locations in the Pittsburgh area. A graduate of the University of Pitsburgh, Cindy is also a published writer.