Adil Shamoo
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"Adil E. Shamoo" is an Assyrian people/Assyrian biochemist with an interest in biomedical ethics and foreign policy. He is currently a professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park/University of Maryland.

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There's nothing magical or mysterious about it, but you don't do it to everyone. You use statistical means, less than 1 percent will be audited.

Will it decrease fraud to zero? No. But if we reduce it to 50 percent, it could save $10 billion to $15 billion.

If the IRS never conducted audits, what do you think would happen to people paying taxes in this country? If the public knows the IRS never conducts audits, don't you think there will be an increase in problems?

Unfortunately, research institutions and universities have not taken this issue seriously. They pay lip service to responsible conduct and research integrity.

There is tremendous pressure today to be first. If you do something first, all the money and fame will come to you. All that is an obvious seduction for doing something like this.

Right now scientific fraud and misconduct is alive and well in this country. We don't have to go to South Korea.

In light of the problems they just had, I'm surprised they're doing this. What I would like to see are conflict-of-interest statements and complete financial disclosures for all involved, and the patients should be told that. This will affect what they're doing and the integrity of the research.

Publish and hold your breath is a hell of a way of handling public health issues.

In these two cases I would say scientists were overzealous, too quick to push ahead. Scientists feel the pressure of our society like everyone else. Their decisions are clouded by visions of fame and dollars.