The chief of ethics at NIH

[George K]

Christine Grady

NTTAWTT

But...GINNI THOMAS!!!

[jon-nyc]

I wonder if this is how they met:

Grady has worked in nursing, clinical research, and clinical care, with a specialization in HIV.[2]

[George K]

I have no evidence that her, or her husband's activities are/were in any way unethical.

But the old saw, "Avoid the appearance of impropriety" comes to mind. I'm sure that Grady could have secured a comparable position at NIH if she had thought of this.

[jon-nyc]

George she’s a bioethicist. You should remember what those are from your days at Northwestern. They sit on IRBs and nit pick study protocols.

[George K]

@jon-nyc said in The chief of ethics at NIH:

George she’s a bioethicist. You should remember what those are from your days at Northwestern. They sit on IRBs and nit pick study protocols.

I know, and I don't disagree.

What study protocols did her committees approve or not approve? Gain of function? Beagles?

(and yeah, I operated on dogs who were euthanized after my misadventures)

Again, I have NO KNOWLEDGE of impropriety. None, whatsoever.

It just looks bad.

[jon-nyc]

I think it only looks bad if you have a cartoonish RWEC view of Dr Fauci.

It might look bad if he made her head of bioethics for NIAID, the division he runs. But she’s not part of his organization or his chain of command.

[jon-nyc]

@George-K

What study protocols did her committees approve or not approve? Gain of function? Beagles?

Since she’s at the NIH’s clinical center, I would assume her department approved studies being conducted by the NIH itself, as opposed to NIH-funded research conducted elsewhere.

(Fun fact: the NIH ran the original study that isolated AAT from human plasma and infused it in people with my disease. That was done in the clinical center in the 80s. )

[George K]

@jon-nyc said in The chief of ethics at NIH:

It might look bad if he made her head of bioethics for NIAID, the division he runs. But she’s not part of his organization or his chain of command.

OK, I can see that.

[jon-nyc]

By the way, I sit on an OSMB for an NIH-funded trial. In general, like with their grant review process, they staff these things with mostly academics in the relevant field. NIH people do attend but they obviously aren’t necessarily experts in every subject where they issue grants.

(“OSMB” or “Observational Study Monitoring Board”, is the equivalent to the “Data Safety Monitoring Board” used in drug trials, the difference is OSMBs are for observational studies whereas DSMBs are for interventional studies. )