Lucille
05-10-2013, 05:49 PM
Breaking: USG lies, covers-up, treats veterans like garbage. Film at 11.
VA Whistleblower Ignites Firestorm Over Vets’ Illnesses
Epidemiologist says VA hid and manipulated data regarding burn pits and Gulf War syndrome.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/va-whistleblower-ignites-firestorm-over-vets-illnesses/
It’s not every day that a scientist creates such intense drama on Capitol Hill.
But Dr. Steven S. Coughlin’s charges that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials hid, manipulated, and even lied about research pertaining to Gulf War Illness (GWI) and health problems plaguing Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are still causing fallout a month after his stunning testimony before a key House subcommittee.
“The implications of his testimony are profound,” declared Anthony Hardie, 45, a Gulf War veteran who serves on the congressionally appointed Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses (RAC).
Veterans and their advocates, as well as many in the scientific community, have long believed that the VA avoids responsibility for veterans’ care by downplaying or outright ignoring evidence linking wartime experiences—such as exposure to Agent Orange, chemical weapons, or toxic pollution—to veterans’ chronic medical issues back home.
Coughlin, a senior epidemiologist with the VA’s Office of Public Health (OPH), gave the VA’s critics what they say is a smoking gun: after conducting major surveys of 1991 Gulf War veterans and “New Generation” veterans from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan, Coughlin told the committee he quit his post in December. He claims the VA is hiding important survey results about the health of veterans and that his colleagues watered-down analysis that might have shed light on whether recent vets got sick from open-air trash-burning pits on overseas bases.
He told the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on March 13 that millions of dollars are invested in veterans’ heath studies each year, yet “if the studies produce results that do not support [OPH’s] unwritten policy, they do not release them.” And “on the rare occasions when embarrassing study results are released, data are manipulated to make them unintelligible.”
He tried to confront his supervisors about what he saw but was “openly threatened and retaliated against” when he did. “I took a beating, but I had to follow my conscience,” Coughlin told The American Conservative.
[...]
Coughlin was co-authoring a paper for publication that he said would reveal connections between Iraq and Afghan war veterans who had been exposed to toxic burn pits on U.S. bases overseas and post-deployment diagnoses of asthma and bronchitis. He said the survey found that “a sizable percent” of vets had been exposed to the burn pits.
“My supervisor, Dr. Aaron Schneiderman, told me not to look at data regarding hospitalization and doctors’ visits,” Coughlin said. By ignoring that data, the “tabulated findings obscured rather than highlighted important associations.” The VA has initiated a new study but currently maintains that there are no long-term health risks associated with the burn pits, citing a limited Institute of Medicine study in 2011 that, based on old air samples, found no conclusive evidence that burning trash in the open was responsible for veterans returning home with scars on their lungs.
The original New Gen study could have provided fresh data, but it was deliberately ignored, said Coughlin, who testified that when he told Schneiderman he “did not want to continue as co-investigator under these circumstances,” he “threatened me.”
Since the hearing, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki has directed the Office of Research Oversight to review Coughlin’s allegations. “Any retaliation against VA employees is against the law and is not tolerated by the Department,” the VA said in a statement. But even after repeated attempts by this writer, the VA declined to address Coughlin’s other claims, which include:
His supervisors lied
[...]
Data permanently lost
[...]
Suicidal vets ignored
Coughlin said that in both the Gulf War and New Gen studies, thousands of veterans reported they had suicidal thoughts in the previous two weeks and “would be better off dead.” Coughlin said there was no protocol in place to offer these vets clinical assistance, and as a result only a “small percentage” got follow-up calls from mental-health specialists.
Coughlin fought for that, and “only after my supervisors threatened to remove me from the study and attempted disciplinary action against me” was he able to secure help for 1,331 vets in the Gulf War study. But he was not been so successful with the New Gen vets, some 2,000 of whom expressed suicidal thoughts. Only a small percentage of those veterans ever got assistance, he said, insisting, “some of those veterans are now homeless or deceased.”
[...]
Capt. Mark Lyles, a Navy scientist who’s been working on research based on a theory that a highly toxic “stew” of heavy metals found in the Iraqi dust is making veterans sick, says he is “not surprised” to hear of inside data manipulation and research bias.
“I’ve had meetings with the VA and their epidemiology people and basically was shocked at their lack of concern for the data I was presenting,” he says. “You have to realize the cost associated with a real pathology. A psychosomatic [illness] can be treated, thus cured. At the very least we can put you on some pills and ‘fix’ your problem. If there is an environmental toxin or exposure that is the cause of this, and they produce permanent neurological damage, than that is forever.”
Lots more at the link
VA Whistleblower Ignites Firestorm Over Vets’ Illnesses
Epidemiologist says VA hid and manipulated data regarding burn pits and Gulf War syndrome.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/va-whistleblower-ignites-firestorm-over-vets-illnesses/
It’s not every day that a scientist creates such intense drama on Capitol Hill.
But Dr. Steven S. Coughlin’s charges that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials hid, manipulated, and even lied about research pertaining to Gulf War Illness (GWI) and health problems plaguing Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are still causing fallout a month after his stunning testimony before a key House subcommittee.
“The implications of his testimony are profound,” declared Anthony Hardie, 45, a Gulf War veteran who serves on the congressionally appointed Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses (RAC).
Veterans and their advocates, as well as many in the scientific community, have long believed that the VA avoids responsibility for veterans’ care by downplaying or outright ignoring evidence linking wartime experiences—such as exposure to Agent Orange, chemical weapons, or toxic pollution—to veterans’ chronic medical issues back home.
Coughlin, a senior epidemiologist with the VA’s Office of Public Health (OPH), gave the VA’s critics what they say is a smoking gun: after conducting major surveys of 1991 Gulf War veterans and “New Generation” veterans from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan, Coughlin told the committee he quit his post in December. He claims the VA is hiding important survey results about the health of veterans and that his colleagues watered-down analysis that might have shed light on whether recent vets got sick from open-air trash-burning pits on overseas bases.
He told the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on March 13 that millions of dollars are invested in veterans’ heath studies each year, yet “if the studies produce results that do not support [OPH’s] unwritten policy, they do not release them.” And “on the rare occasions when embarrassing study results are released, data are manipulated to make them unintelligible.”
He tried to confront his supervisors about what he saw but was “openly threatened and retaliated against” when he did. “I took a beating, but I had to follow my conscience,” Coughlin told The American Conservative.
[...]
Coughlin was co-authoring a paper for publication that he said would reveal connections between Iraq and Afghan war veterans who had been exposed to toxic burn pits on U.S. bases overseas and post-deployment diagnoses of asthma and bronchitis. He said the survey found that “a sizable percent” of vets had been exposed to the burn pits.
“My supervisor, Dr. Aaron Schneiderman, told me not to look at data regarding hospitalization and doctors’ visits,” Coughlin said. By ignoring that data, the “tabulated findings obscured rather than highlighted important associations.” The VA has initiated a new study but currently maintains that there are no long-term health risks associated with the burn pits, citing a limited Institute of Medicine study in 2011 that, based on old air samples, found no conclusive evidence that burning trash in the open was responsible for veterans returning home with scars on their lungs.
The original New Gen study could have provided fresh data, but it was deliberately ignored, said Coughlin, who testified that when he told Schneiderman he “did not want to continue as co-investigator under these circumstances,” he “threatened me.”
Since the hearing, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki has directed the Office of Research Oversight to review Coughlin’s allegations. “Any retaliation against VA employees is against the law and is not tolerated by the Department,” the VA said in a statement. But even after repeated attempts by this writer, the VA declined to address Coughlin’s other claims, which include:
His supervisors lied
[...]
Data permanently lost
[...]
Suicidal vets ignored
Coughlin said that in both the Gulf War and New Gen studies, thousands of veterans reported they had suicidal thoughts in the previous two weeks and “would be better off dead.” Coughlin said there was no protocol in place to offer these vets clinical assistance, and as a result only a “small percentage” got follow-up calls from mental-health specialists.
Coughlin fought for that, and “only after my supervisors threatened to remove me from the study and attempted disciplinary action against me” was he able to secure help for 1,331 vets in the Gulf War study. But he was not been so successful with the New Gen vets, some 2,000 of whom expressed suicidal thoughts. Only a small percentage of those veterans ever got assistance, he said, insisting, “some of those veterans are now homeless or deceased.”
[...]
Capt. Mark Lyles, a Navy scientist who’s been working on research based on a theory that a highly toxic “stew” of heavy metals found in the Iraqi dust is making veterans sick, says he is “not surprised” to hear of inside data manipulation and research bias.
“I’ve had meetings with the VA and their epidemiology people and basically was shocked at their lack of concern for the data I was presenting,” he says. “You have to realize the cost associated with a real pathology. A psychosomatic [illness] can be treated, thus cured. At the very least we can put you on some pills and ‘fix’ your problem. If there is an environmental toxin or exposure that is the cause of this, and they produce permanent neurological damage, than that is forever.”
Lots more at the link