A research institute has filed a lawsuit against its former employee,
Judy Mikovits, who claimed to link a mouse retrovirus to chronic
fatigue syndrome.
By Jef Akst | November 15, 2011
Just over a month ago, the Whittemore Peterson Institute for
Neuro-Immune Disease (WPI) fired its former research director, Judy
Mikovits, who led the study that identified a link between a mouse
retrovirus to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), which has since been
widely discredited. Now, the non-profit institute has filed a lawsuit
against Mikovits, ScienceInsider reported, claiming that she took lab
notebooks and documents from her computer that she had no right to
take and that could hinder the institute=92s research efforts.
=93Without these materials, WPI=92s ability to continue its important
research on finding a cure for these terrible diseases impacting over
4 million Americans each year is severely hampered,=94 the complaint
stated.
WPI discovered the missing notebooks after opening a drawer in
Mikovits=92s desk that was normally kept locked. Mikovits had the only
key, but the institution had the desk=92s manufacturer send an employee
to open the drawer. Mikovits denies any wrongdoing, according to her
lawyer, who stated in a rebuttal letter that Mikovits was not in her
office when she was fired, and has not returned since.
The courts have already granted WPI an order to temporarily forbid
Mikovits from =93destroying, deleting, or altering=94 any of the files,
and will hear argument on a request for preliminary injunction on
November 22.
http://the-scientist.com/2011/11/15/chronic-fatigued-researcher-sued/
---------------------------------------------
Send posts to CO-CURE@listserv.nodak.edu
Unsubscribe at http://www.co-cure.org/unsub.htm
---------------------------------------------
Co-Cure's purpose is to provide information from across the spectrum of
opinion concerning medical, research and political aspects of ME/CFS and/or
FMS. We take no position on the validity of any specific scientific or
political opinion expressed in Co-Cure posts, and we urge readers to
research the various opinions available before assuming any one
interpretation is definitive. The Co-Cure website <www.co-cure.org> has a
link to our complete archive of posts as well as articles of central
importance to the issues of our community.
---------------------------------------------
