From: black@che.serum.kodak.com (Robert Black (x37236))
Subject: Re: CBS's "60 Minutes" damns PeTA
Organization: Clinical Products Division, Eastman Kodak Company
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 17:31:27 GMT

In article <1993Jan25.215302.17064@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> jhoskins@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (James M Hoskins) writes:
>In article <C1FB0G.DK3@wpg.com> russ@wpg.com (Russell Lawrence) writes:

[...]

>I know little about Carey's research.  Do you have some special
>knowledge that would shed light on its legitimacy?

Here's a copy of Barnard's letter to Wallace which appeared on AREN 
this morning:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

January 25, 1993

Mr. Mike Wallace
Sixty Minutes
555 W. 57th Street
New York, NY 10019

Dear Mr. Wallace:

The   Sixty   Minutes   presentation   on   Michael   Carey's  cat-shooting
experiments   was  an  interesting  fictionalized  account  of  the  events
leading up to their cancellation. The program left out key facts:

   1.  Considerable  air  time  was  spent  establishing that the cats were
   anesthetized  when  shot.  This  was never in question. The pain we were
   concerned  about  was  after  the anesthesia was turned off. At least 33
   percent  of  the  brain-damaged  cats  survived  their  injuries  and no
   anesthesia  or  pain  killers were used after wounding. The aftermath of
   penetrating  head  injuries  can be excruciating. The General Accounting
   Office  (GAO)  reported  that  LSU's  veterinarian  "told  us  that  the
   animals from the brain-wound project experienced pain." (p.27)

   2.  While  the  GAO's  "medical  panel" did make positive comments about
   the  experiments,  your  report left out the fact that, before they met,
   they  were  telephoned  and asked to issue a positive report by the head
   of  a  national  neurological  surgery  organization.  One  of the panel
   members   reported   to  you  the  serious  technical  problems  of  the
   experiments, but you chose to exclude her from the program.

   3.  Carey  stated  that  he  was on the brink of "showing that this drug
   would  really  work  when  our  research  funding  was shut off." As you
   know,  this  is  nonsense.  In  Carey's  first  Army  contract,  he  was
   supposed  to  test  medications but did not do so. According to the GAO,
   "For  example,  testing  treatment  drugs  was an objective of the first
   contract,  yet  the  principal  investigator  stated  that no drugs were
   tested."  (P.37)  While he did start using medications eventually in the
   second  contract,  the  idea  of  an  imminent  "breakthrough" at LSU is
   simply a fiction.

   4.  Your  program  entirely  omitted  any  discussion  of the scientific
   fraud  aspects  of  the  case.  Carey's  fraudulent  public claims about
   being  the  first  to  discover  post-wounding  apnea were omitted, even
   though  your  staff  saw  him make these false claims on local Louisiana
   television   and   saw   similar   claims  in  his  published  accounts.
   Similarly,  GAO  consultants reported that Carey left out a large amount
   of  data  in reporting his results and that some of his data were beyond
   the limits of possibility.

   5.  There  was  almost  no  mention  of  the  fact that there are other,
   better  methods  of  research  on  brain  injury. Clinical study of head
   injury  patients  is  of  far more utility than animal experiments. Head
   injury  can  be  a  terrible  thing,  and  those  conducting  legitimate
   clinical  research  are  not  well  served by this fanciful portrayal of
   what, in fact, were poorly controlled and frankly cruel experiments.

In  an  interview  with  Dr. Michael DeBakey which I published in 1990, Dr.
DeBakey  complained  that  Sixty  Minutes  will  not  hesitate to rearrange
reality.  DeBakey  was  complaining  of  a  Sixty  Minutes program on heart
surgery,  but  his  comments  would  apply equally well to this most recent
program:  "And  the worst one was Sixty Minutes. This fellow, Mike Wallace,
came  down  here  and  spent  a day with me. Never put me on. He completely
edited  my  remarks out of the program because I told the truth about it...
When  the  truth  doesn't fit in with their notions of what is presentable,
they don't include it."

It  is  reassuring  to  note  that  Sixty  Minutes  could  not  construct a
truthful   program   which   was   complimentary   to   these  experiments.
Nonetheless,  I  ask  you  to  do  what you can to present the facts of the
case  in  a  follow-up  report.  Please  consider  presenting the paragraph
numbered "1." above in the letters segment of a future program.

Sincerely,

Neal D. Bernard, M.D.
President
(202) 686-2210

---
Robert Black 		|  Replies may be slow.
black@serum.kodak.com  - The ONLY email address that MIGHT work.
These views are not necessarily the views of my employers.
Newsgroups: talk.politics.animals