Backup Text for Remarks Never Delivered

17 March 1998

p. 4

LARGE EGOS than in providing the President with the FRANK AND
FORTHRIGHT assessments and advice he asked this Council to give him, and
which might lead to fixing some of the AIDS vaccine problems.
(Secretary Shalala might envy some of this immunity.) (You only need to look at
the December 1997 draft of this report, a copy of which can be found in your
notebooks in section 8 at pages 27-30, to see how even polite and constructive
suggestions to the agency were removed.)
One reason these CONTROVERSIES have remained OUTSIDE OF
PUBLIC AWARENESS, and may be NEW to some Council members, is that
nearly all scientists are dependent on NIH GRANTS provided through
ANONYMOUS review panels. Even one reviewer giving a LOW SCORE to get
back at a "troublemaker" who EXPRESSES CRITICISM can kill one's chances
for financial support. So I am very grateful to the many courageous experts, listed
in the appendices of this document, who shared their assessments and insight with
our committee in educating us over the last two years.

Bruce G. Weniger, MD, MPH