A federal health panel will hold an unusual two-day hearing starting on Monday to decide the physician's fate. Jajosky and his colleagues found that sailors, especially black sailors, who served on aircraft carriers had a greater likelihood than sailors on other ships of being diagnosed with sarcoidosis. Jajosky further found that sailors who served on vessels with few or no industrial jobs, like hospital ships or tugboats, had a lesser likelihood of having the disease diagnosed. But Jajosky and other medical experts differ on what to do with this information. Jajosky and his supporters say the findings, while not definitive, are compelling enough to prompt more government study.
Some senior epidemiologists disagree.
But frankly, his judgment about what to do after that was flawed. There was no more to be done. Jajosky's plight and the underlying case have polarized his colleagues and, at one point or another, seized the attention of the secretary of the Navy, the U.S. surgeon general, influential members of Congress and the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, who is investigating the doctor's complaints. It has also cast a spotlight on the safety and health institute and the delicate line it must walk between dispassionate science and advocacy for worker health and safety. Advocacy, if it's not science-driven, is where we get into trouble.