Washington Post Stein_Irresponsible Reporting on Human Embryonic Stem Cell Trial

The Washington Post published an embarrassing article entitled the "First patient treated in stem cell study" by Rob Stein on October 11, 2010.  The study that Stein's article refers to is the first human clinical trial performed using human embryonic stem cells to treat recent spinal chord injury in the United States.  Stein writes, "Doctors will, however, also conduct a series of specially designed tests to see whether the treatment helps the patients." 

Stein has it WRONG....dead wrong.  This study is designed only as a SAFETY study.  The results of this study cannot begin to access if the actual embryonic stem cell treatment helped or not.  Scientifically...it isn't possible.

Any suggestion that this study can provide insight into assesssing whether the treatment helped the patient is utterly irresponsible.

In fact, this clinical trial does not even have the proper scientific controls to access benefits of the treatment.  It can only provide information if it is SAFE or NOT.  Period.

One of the problems is the patient selection criteria.   Many skeptics were questioning why the human subjects for this trial were only selected from the recently injured, instead of from a population who had experienced more long term spinal injuries which no longer benefited from physical therapy.  Since many recent spinal chord injured patients have been found to improve slowly over time with only physical therapy, using only recently injured patients makes it difficult and impossible to access treatment effectiveness.

The reason why only recently injured patients are selected is suspicious.   Proponents of the embryonic stem cell community can "twist" the results of this safety study in the media, purporting that the patient improvement was specific to the treatment, when in fact, many of these patients would improve on thier own without treatment.

And here comes Stein...doing exactly that...twisting the facts...making statements that this study can access treatment effectiveness.  It is untruthful and dishonest.

The human clinical study has been designed specifically to access the safety of the treatment.   It has not been designed to assess if the treatment is effective or not.  Reporting that this study can provide any insights on effectiveness, is plain ridiculous and reckless.

Is Stein being a scientific baffoon...or is he promoting propaganda on purpose?  Who knows.  But one thing is for sure...Stein's Washington Post article is irresponsible.   There is no excuse for this type of reporting.

OBAMA Removes Human Embryonic Stem Cell Restrictions under the Guise of Separation of Science and Politics

President OBAMA removed the government ban on federal funding of hESC (human embryonic stem cell research) in what was described as a move that “is part of the administration’s broader effort to separate science and politics”.

But the politics still remain as the biomedical community continues to use “think tank” media strategies, using the wheelchair bound paraplegic as their poster child to engender sympathy against the human rights issues involved in human embryonic stem cell research.

There is little of a remote chance that embryonic stem cells will provide a therapeutic cure toward paraplegia or quadriplegia. Scientists know it and have known it. But now they strategize by telling the public that “cures won’t happen overnight”…still allowing the desperate to cling on to hopeless hope with the embryonic stem cell.

At the same time the biomedical community avoids any mention of the public safety dangers, lack of regulations and lack of worker rights associated with the embryonic stem cell research. They also would not dare to mention the current use of human embryonic stem cells in our biowarfare laboratories.

Instead the biomedical think tank experts do brilliant work to avoid these issues and in its place exploit the anti-abortion stance to their advantage, painting pro-life groups as radical, against science and unsympathetic to the plight of the disabled.

This has been a good tactic and a successful one, casting shadows on the human rights and safety issues underlying the use of human embryos in research while promising hopeless cures.

While all the time….Human embryonic stem cell research is about big money and big business. Billions of dollars. Period.

Despite what he says, President OBAMA’s move was in a fact, a political move. It will establish policy so that scientists can move ahead without responsibility for public health and safety on the use of human embryos in research and without any realistic ethical constraints. It will limit public transparency, making this research on human embryos more private and secretive. The NIH will make sure it…of course, under their appointed guise of developing “ethical standards.”

In describing his decision to eliminate the ban on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research, Obama said, “Our government has forced …a false choice between sound science and moral values.” These are fine tuned words that carry a great deception.

The Propaganda Psychogenic Illness Phenomenon: You Are Not Sick--You're Just Nuts--

The Psychogenic Illness Propaganda Phenomenon

Well, it’s happened in the United States with Morgellen and Lyme Disease sufferers and now it is happening in China.

It is the use of labeling people “psychogenic” in a propaganda effort to limit responsibility and shroud grave concerns concerning public health and safety issues.

Today a report in the NY times describes the use of this propaganda strategy when more than 1,300 employees at a textile mill in China fell ill with symptoms of convulsions, breathing difficulties, vomiting and temporary paralysis. See the NYtimes article here for details.

Dr. David Michaels Speaks about Scientific Propaganda

Dr. David Michaels, speaks about scientific propaganda in his book, "Doubt Is Their Product". He tells us of personal stories as a top level advisor in Public Health and how our scientific leadership has lost integrity, many of which have sold out to the highest bidder in industry. He speaks about the conflicts of interest between government, academia and private industry, causing a great chasm in public health and safety. He speaks about how science is misused to shape public policy. Michaels speaks the truth. He understands the driving forces working within the scientific community that influence and degrade public health and safety.

View his video talking about his book here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4taQxZ1zg8

SCIENTIFIC PROPAGANDA #3: ADULT STEM CELL THERAPY IS SAFE AND SHOULD NOT BE REGULATED

Now don’t get me wrong. If someone put a gun to my head and forced me to choose between an embryonic stem cell therapy and an adult stem cell therapy in an experimental attempt to cure a bone disease which I may suffer, I would, hands down, choose adult stem cell therapy. Adult stem cell therapy, by all probability, would be safer.

But remember, I had a gun to my head. If I had a free choice, I most likely would turn, high tail it quickly toward the nearest exit, choosing neither option, unless a sound clinical trial had been performed and I had access to the results of such trial.

But back to the gun at my head….

Adult stem cell therapy is generally considered to be safer than embryonic stem cell therapy since it does not have the potential to create a teratoma, infamous for embryonic stem cell therapy gone wild, gone wrong. Teratomas are the ying of the embryonic stem cell potential, the yang being pleuropotency, the potential to form any cell in the body.

But this decreased risk using the adult stem cell does not necessarily indicate that adult stem cell therapy is safe, free of dangers. Even if the adult stem cells are harvested from one’s own body, serious problems and dangers can present if those cells are not handled safely, appropriately controlled or have undergone any chemical or genetic manipulated while in culture.

In vitro (i.e. in culture) manipulation of adult stem cells can lead to dangerous and unpredictable changes within the adult stem cell or lead to a contamination that could cause great harm to a patient, even death. Adult stem cell therapies should be regulated with GMP standards. Scientific technicians should be certified and trained to do this work. Well, at least that is what I would demand.

The other danger with using any stem cell treatment (that being adult or embryonic) is what I call “positional effects”. That is, where the stem cell is placed back in the body of the patient could negatively impact safety of the patient. Try shooting a syringe full of adult stem cell osteoblasts inside a human brain and let’s see how safe that will be. Not on me you won't.

Adult stem cell therapies can be used to potentially treat a variety of diseases in different ways in different forms. To ensure patient safety and enhance scientific discovery, much research is still needed to understand the science behind adult stem cell therapy and how, what, where and why it will be used. This requires formal clinical trials. Period.

A sudden pool of pro-adult stem cell proponents (most likely linked to the industry of “physicians gone biotech” and their ties to desperate patient advocacy groups) have entered the blogosphere recently in numerous numbers, vocally advocating with resounding stomping of feet, that adult stem cells are proven safe and should not be regulated. This is another ploy by the scientific community to mislead the public in order to avoid any type of regulation within the biological research sciences. It is getting to be absurd and truly is dangerous. It exploits the public, especially those with serious debilitating illness, leading many to sign up for dangerous unregulated clinical trials. It’s bad science.

The FDA is on the prowl and not happy about this. I don’t blame them. The FDA is not perfect. But this time they are right in their argument. Adult stem cell therapy should be regulated. It has not been proven safe.

Just because adult stem cell therapies are offered in other parts of the world doesn’t prove that they are safe or effective. Adult stem cell therapy offers a safer and better ethical alternative than embryonic stem cell therapy. But adult stem cell therapies are used in many different ways, requiring oversight to ensure patient safety and do good science.

SCIENTIFIC PROPAGANDA #2: THE GOLDEN STANDARD OF THE HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELL

Since the iPS cell has been proven to hold as much pluripotent potential as the human embryonic stem cell, will this scientific breakthrough solve the ethical debate regarding experimentation on human embryos?

I doubt it. The scientific community wants full broad range to research on human embryos for many reasons that if fully disclosed, would make the public shudder.

But this iPS stuff is trouble, even for Dr. Evil.

You see, the iPS discovery has put the human embryonic researchers in a tizzy…another ethical tizzy when trying to convince the public about the justification to continue to research and destroy human embryos.

Scientific propaganda machine start your engines….AND THEY’RE OFF!

The new propaganda slogan is out and running…stating that human embryonic stem cells are still needed because they serve as the “golden standard”.

Golden standard for what?

Excuse me. Once the embryonic stem cell is placed in a petri dish apart from its 50 to 100 other embryo brother or sister cells, it no longer is a golden standard for anything.


It is a new in vitro entity, alone, trying to figure out what to do and what to become… in a new unfamiliar environment with no motherly direction. It is at the mercy of the scientist’s discretion and his artificial treatments…chemical, genetic, hot, cold. Most of the time, at this point, the human embryonic stem cell is just struggling to stay alive ....floating or attached to a petri dish.

The embryonic stem cell removed from the embryo… ain’t anybody's golden standard.

Any scientist with any brains and an ounce of integrity will admit that the golden standard for a stem cell clinical therapy will be the target adult differentiated cell, not the embryonic stem cell. For example, if you are going to cure a heart ailment with stem cell technology, the “golden standard” is the adult cardiocyte, not the undifferentiated embryonic stem cell.

The scientific propaganda machine continues to run with full engines in gear. They will use every false- justification imagined in order to convince the public that scientists must continue to work on human embryos despite good alternative technologies such as iPS and adult stem cells.

The scientific propaganda machine convinced the public to use human embryos to find all those promised miracle cures that have not been delivered. They will continue to find some poor reason to blind the public again to continue their sly endeavors to manipulate and manhandle human dignity…oh… I meant, the human embryo...all in the name of science.

SCIENTIFIC PROPAGANDA: THE EMBRYONIC STEM CELL AND REGULATION

It is amazing to me how much scientific propaganda, euphemisms, gibberish and skillful verbal engineering are used to promote the scientific agenda with disregard to public health and safety and bioethics. So I intend to post a “Scientific Propaganda” series every so often to enlighten the public toward intentional misinformation.

Below is an example of Scientific Propaganda Tactic #1:
ONLY PROVIDING PART OF THE ANSWER IN ORDER TO MISREPRESENT THE TRUTH

The Business Journal recently published an article asking Robyn Shapiro the following question concerning regulations imposed upon human embryonic stem cell research performed in private industry:

Q. For embryonic stem cell research going on in the private sector, are there rules or guidelines those researchers must follow?
Robyn Shapiro's answer: “The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) regulates this kind of research. It’s ironic, but at the end of January, the FDA gave approval for the first clinical trial use of embryonic stem cells in spinal cord conditions, so 10 patients are in that trial. I think (the FDA) spent a year looking at that, but that is, of course, privately funded research.”

(From Ms. Shapiro’s answer one gets the impression that private industry is stringently regulated. Wrong!)

The more complete answer should have been:
There are no regulations on the private sector in regards to human embryonic stem cell research except at the human clinical trial level. The FDA regulates private industry only during human clinic trials, but not basic research or developmental research. This lack of regulation includes the access and research use of the human embryo. Dangerous embryonic stem cell research is occurring in private industry; but it remains unseen and hidden since the private sector is under no federal regulations or obligation toward oversight. Private industry very often uses trade secret abuse to avoid public criticism and disclosure. Ethical and safety oversight is impossible in private industry since they are not regulated at the basic research level.

Please send your favorite scientific propaganda to watchdogonscience.