Women at NIH allege harassment

WASHINGTON – Women at the National Institutes of Health faced sexual intimidation and repeated disregard of their concerns about the welfare of patients in AIDS experiments, according to testimony by two senior female officers and documents gathered by investigators.

One officer at the government’s premier medical research agency alleges that the harassment and disregard for federal safety regulations are so widespread that employees are afraid to hold up experiments even if they see a safety problem.

Her sworn testimony and other documents were obtained by the Associated Press from a variety of sources inside and outside the agency.

“It can be fairly uncomfortable,” medical officer Betsy Smith testified in a recent deposition turned over to federal and Senate investigators. “There are a number of things that you really don’t talk about.”

Testimony by Smith and the chief compliance officer for AIDS research, as well as e-mail involving more staffers and several bosses, paints a picture of a sometimes raunchy, profane-language atmosphere inside an agency regarded for its pristine science.

Documents tell of a supervisor sending a red bra to a former female subordinate and of women being hugged or kissed by bosses. One supervisor invited a colleague to a West Coast rock concert and suggested they visit an AIDS clinic there so the trip could be charged to taxpayers.

Smith and the top regulatory compliance officer in the agency’s AIDS division have stepped forward in interviews with investigators and in sworn depositions and have expanded on allegations made last year by an agency whistleblower, Dr. Jonathan Fishbein.

Fishbein alleges he is being fired as the AIDS division’s chief of human research protection because he raised concerns about patient safety and shoddy science. The agency says he was fired for poor performance.