During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, every month, tens of thousands of hospitalized patients perished in isolation while on ventilators, succumbing to severe lung inflammation.
In the first semester of the pandemic, the WHO and CDC prohibited using an affordable, safe, and readily available potent anti-inflammatory treatment despite proof of efficacy in prior viral pandemics. This decision exacerbated the strain on hospitals, hastening an unprecedented socio-economic crisis.
This tragedy was entirely preventable. The eventual delayed adoption of corticosteroid treatment(see figure below) saved millions of lives. Endorsing this petition might avert comparable calamities.
Join the Call for Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and the NIH Director to investigate the Suppression of Lifesaving Research and the Toll on Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients.
Please consider signing and sharing this petition. Thank you.
Image: White flags on the National Mall to honor Americans who have lost their lives to COVID-19 epidemic
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Podcasts:
1. Pharma: Not Their First Rodeo- Umberto Meduri and Paul Marik on Dark Horse - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxDOMZBH83g
2. The Cost of Corruption: FLCCC Weekly Update (Aug. 09, 2023)
LINK: https://covid19criticalcare.com/the-cost-of-corruption/
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Question Raised by the Whistleblower:
Why a Cheap Drug That Halts a Common Fatal Illness Went Unused"Why did public institutions tasked with safeguarding research integrity and the public undermine a promising research program and obstruct the publication of life-saving findings?Why were the whistleblower’s efforts to draw attention to the issue met with unprecedented retaliatory actions aimed at suppressing an investigation?
The existing system to preserve the integrity of science and the public good is ineffective and urgently needs reform. Scientists deviating from specific political or economic interests face swift undermining, resulting in significant repercussions for the public. We cannot afford further delays in reforming these critical systems; countless lives are at stake.
In 2012, Dr. Meduri expressed this concern to the then Chair of the Senate HELP Committee. Dr. Meduri engaged with the HELP chief counsel for over three years through meetings, emails, and videoconferences. However, the petition was blocked in 2015 without any justification. One can't help but reflect on how many lives might have been saved had the HELP Committee acted upon Dr. Meduri's initial request. We can no longer afford indifference.With your backing, we can overcome these obstacles, push forward with the urgently needed investigation, and hopefully reform the present system.
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Appeal to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and NIH Director to Investigate
The Whistleblower Report highlights how public institutions tasked with safeguarding research integrity can be easily manipulated to undermine life-saving research progress. It underscores the negligence of the Office of Research Integrity in enforcing federal regulations and addressing well-documented complaints against a state university's systematic misuse of policies meant to protect scientific integrity. This complacency has led to irreparable damage to life-saving research, denying effective treatment to hundreds of thousands of patients and depriving them of a chance for survival. The global repercussions of such negligence were evident during the COVID-19 pandemic.The report points out the Office of Research Integrity's dismissal of appeals for investigation and policy reform, exposing a concerning collaboration between the Office of Research Integrity and a public university in obstructing public awareness of the facts presented by Dr. Meduri. Previous Whistleblower Reports to federal regulatory agencies, the US Congress, and the Senate were unjustifiably ignored, highlighting a severe and current threat to science and public health in the United States of America.Furthermore, the failure of public institutions is coupled with pharmaceutical companies' escalating influence and financial power, which has permeated the realms of media, academia, and government. This convergence poses a significant threat to the integrity of the scientific pursuit of cost-effective treatments. Only through an in-depth investigation of failures within state and federal institutions can we reform a dysfunctional system incapable of self-reflection, posing a significant danger to medical science and the public.
G. Umberto Meduri, MD
Retired Professor of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
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Short Background:
Public recognition came on May 17, 2002, when Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tom Burton penned a favorable front-page article in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) titled “Why Cheap Drugs That Appear To Halt Fatal Sepsis Go Unused… – Dr. Meduri’s 15 Year Quest.” The article highlighted the substantial hurdles faced by clinical investigators in securing funds for the study of off-patent medications like the corticosteroid methylprednisolone, in stark contrast to the lavish spending associated with drug companies' sponsored trials, investigator compensation and aggressive promotion of new products.
The unthinkable occurred within days of the WSJ publication, as the university leadership inexplicably withdrew Dr. Meduri's primary funding, blatantly violating the university and the code of federal regulations. This reprehensible action was part of a pre-planned systematic effort, documented in handwritten notes, to obstruct the study's publication and impede ongoing research on an affordable and highly effective treatment. From 2002 to 2019, exploiting HHS's Department federal regulations and university policies, Dr. Meduri faced ten inquiries-investigations based on proven false allegations of data fabrication while advancing life-saving research was thwarted.
Dr. Meduri's public denouncement of the university and the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) misconduct prompted unprecedented retaliation to silence public exposure of actions contrary to the public interest. Despite numerous appeals to local and national political representatives, no investigation has probed the academic-political and interests driving the systematic efforts to dismantle life-saving research, with one severe consequence being the hindrance of federally funded research for a new confirmatory trial.
The disease. The ailment in question, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), afflicts a significant number of individuals globally (200,000 cases in the US/year; 2,000,000 worldwide/year), posing a life-threatening condition with rapid progression to acute respiratory failure necessitating extended mechanical ventilator support. Over ten percent of Intensive Care Unit patients suffer from ARDS, caused predominantly by sepsis (severe infection), notably pneumonia. ARDS is the leading cause of death in COVID-19 pneumonia. Since 1988, Dr. Meduri has diligently researched the cause and treatment of systemic and lung inflammation in ARDS.
Promising treatment. In April 2002, Dr. Meduri concluded a preliminary multi-hospital randomized clinical trial (RCT) demonstrating that early intervention with low-to-moderate dose anti-inflammatory (methylprednisolone) treatment within three days of initiating mechanical ventilation led to a fifty percent reduction in ventilation duration and hospital mortality. One-month treatment costs approximately $240, offset by tens of thousands of dollars in cost savings from decreased mechanical ventilation duration (approximately $3000-to-4000/day) and hospital stay. The university's repressive actions caused a five-year delay (Chest 2007) in publishing these pivotal findings, and widespread defamation resulted in a global loss of interest in this promising research. The Chest 2007 seminal publication provided compelling proof of concept, concluding that "a larger trial is necessary to confirm the mortality findings of this study."
Effective treatment. Finally, on February 7, 2020, a Spanish group (outside the U.S. pharmaco-political influence) published the results of a sizeable confirmatory trial in Lancet Respiratory Medicine that reproduced the original findings reported in Chest 2007. Corticosteroid treatment was safe and associated with a substantial reduction in mortality (20% vs. 36%) and mechanical ventilation (5 days). The scientific evidence is now more robust. Implementing the highly effective, safe, and inexpensive anti-inflammatory treatment initially promoted by Dr. Meduri will positively impact a common and lethal disease with enormous savings in healthcare costs. Unfortunately, the WHO ignored this research and failed to recommend corticosteroids in the first seven months of the pandemic, with catastrophic consequences in lost lives and the associated economic collapse.
The public consequences. Every year, from 2003 to 2020, hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide were denied the only available pharmacological treatment for a life-threatening disease. Patients that have suffered and died and their families deserve justice. After its late introduction, corticosteroid treatment for COVID-19 saved one million lives in the first nine months of its implementation and "millions" within two years [see figure above].
