It's been a little quiet here at Shrink Rap this week, in between the earthquake and the upcoming hurricane. Please bear with us. If we have power this weekend (and if Dinah has her network back up) we may try our first-ever videoconference podcast.
In the meantime, best wishes to all our readers and listeners in the path of the storm. Please heed precautions and take care of yourselves!
See you on the other side.
In the meantime, you might be interested in reading a followup comment on my Clinical Psychiatry News post about the psychological autopsy done on the alleged anthrax mailer, Dr. Bruce Ivins. Not surprisingly, the expert behavioral analysis panel (EBAP) disagrees with me. They feel they did the right thing by publishing and selling his medical data. Read the EBAP response.
I disapprove of that amerithrax group and their response. Ivins killed himself in 2008. The FBI concluded their investigation and said it was Ivins in 2010 (unproven in court). The National Academy of Science did a review and issued a report saying the FBI overstated their case in 2010. Then this group of doctors, with ties to the FBI (Resource Strategies Network is a 501(c) which "provides financial and administrative support to the Critical Incident Analysis Group, within the University of Virginia's School of Medicine...((which)) grew out of a need from the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group to liaison between the FBI...") issues a report saying their findings corroborate the FBI's conclusion of guilt? That's not a conflict of interest? And taxpayers paid about $40k in expenses for this? How many millions have taxpayers paid so far in civil litigation arising from the FBI's investigation? Was it $5 million? And a few more suits are pending, aren't they? And if it's not a "profile" what is it? What purpose could it possibly serve? And then they sell the report? Sure other federally-authorized reports have been sold, but not medical reports. And they say it's not a standard forensic report? It was ordered by a judge, of course. It's a forensic report. Ethical guidelines apply. And they say they did it to "ensure the security of all Americans?" There hadn't been an anthrax attack in this country for 9 years when these amerithrax docs published that report. I hate it when people wrap themselves in the flag to justify bad behavior. The ethical role of docs playing with national security agencies has to be sorted out. Doctors would do well to remember that they're doctors.
ReplyDeleteHang in there!! Sounds as though the weather gods have been picking on you. Here we are in the Land Downunder, monitoring Tweets & news services to check out what's happening to our friends in your neck of the woods! I hope Irene loses her kick once she crosses the coast and fizzles out into a rain depression like Ivan & Co. did in northern Queensland. Good luck!!
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