Report Vindicates NIH Whistle-Blower, But Doesn't Prevent Him From Being Fired

The Associated Press reported on an internal National Institute of Health (NIH) study of charges made by whistle-blower Dr. Jonathan Fishbein about how the NIH Division of AIDS (DAIDS) ran a study in Uganda of the anti-retroviral drug nevarapine. The internal study reportedly stated, "it is clear DAIDS is a troubled organization," and that Fishbein's complaints were "clearly a sketch of a deeper issue." Furthermore, "to have the senior management ... behave in this manner, spend incredible amounts of time feuding, and writing numerous long e-mails while seemingly unaware of the need need for appropriate behavior, decorum, and enforcement of good management practices and the rules of supervision and concerns about appearance of reprisal clearly indicates a serious problem."
Meanwhile, the Associated Press also reported that the NIH has made good on previous threats to terminate Fishbein, whose last day of work was apparently Friday, July 1. This drew fire from congress, specifically the senior members of the Senate Finance Committee. Senators Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Max Baucus (D-Montana) wrote to the NIH, "retaliation against an employee for reporting misconduct or voicing concerns is unacceptable, illegal, and violates the Whistelblower Protection Act."Previously, an internal report to the Director of the NIH, Elias Zerhouni, also concluded that trying to fire Fishbein gave "the appearance of reprisal."
We had posted on this issue awhile back, here, here here, and here.
This is just a reminder that in government, just as in commercial and not-for-profit health care organizations, there are too many heavy-handed bosses who respond to criticism by trying to shut up the critic, even when the criticism is about quality problems in research or provision of health care.