Reno Dispatch Exclusive: White House Honoree Slams VA, Says Administration's Investigation Barely Scratches the Surface

SOURCE: Reno Dispatch, Jamie Reno reporting, June 4, 2014

http://therenodispatch.blogspot.com/2014/06/exclusive-white-house-honoree-slams-va_4.html


ARCHIVED ARTICLE:

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

EXCLUSIVE: White House Honoree Slams VA, Says Administration's Investigation Barely Scratches the Surface

U.S. troops during Gulf War - va.gov

On Wednesday, Sloan Gibson, the acting secretary of Veterans Affairs, announced he will visit the embattled Phoenix VA to discuss immediate actions taken as a result of recommendations outlined in the recent interim Inspector General (IG) report. But Jim Binns, a veterans advocate who was honored by the Obama administration for his service to veterans, said the administration's investigation of the manipulation of wait times and other alleged wrongdoing at VA is fatally flawed, and Gibson's visit to Phoenix probably won't change that. 

In a scathing letter sent on Tuesday to Gibson, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Rob Nabors, who was handpicked by the president to oversee the government's VA investigation, and other officials, Binns said the investigation cannot be entrusted to VA staff or even the IG. 

"The Chief of Staff, the Acting Undersecretary for Health, and the Undersecretary for Benefits are themselves directly implicated," wrote Binns, who chairs the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses, which Congress established in 1998 to advise VA on research to improve Gulf War veterans' health. "Like the Gulf War battlefield," he wrote, "VA is a toxic environment." 

Binns, who is also an executive, attorney, former Department of Defense policy official and Vietnam veteran, was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service. He urged the administration to "look much higher and much deeper than hospital administrators scamming wait times with tragic results."

Jim Binns  -  whitehouse.gov

Binns, who in 2011 was recognized by the Obama administration as a "Champion of Change,"   said in the letter that for the past two years, VA staff has been engaged in a "backdoor campaign to rig scientific studies and reports in order to revive the discredited 1990’s fiction that nothing special happened" to Gulf War veterans. 

Binns described other VA such as slanting research studies, failing to publish critical research results, disseminating false information to the medical community, manipulating even reports of the Institute of Medicine, and failing to conduct Gulf War studies as ordered by Congress.

While multiple reports by his committee and the Institute of Medicine have "conclusively established" that Gulf War Illness is real and not a psychiatric condition, Binns wrote, the 250,000 veterans suffering from this illness "still have no effective treatments. But instead of seeking treatments, VA is quietly trying to revive the stress theory by fabricating science."

Binns told The Reno Dispatch on Wednesday evening that a new acting secretary or secretary "who comes in from the outside and has to rely on the existing career staff has virtually no hope of becoming aware of, let alone solving, the systemic issues" at the agency.  

As CNN and many other news organizations reported last week, IG found in its interim report that at least 1,700 veterans waiting for their first appointment to see a doctor were never even placed on a wait list. A Phoenix resident, Binns has been closely following the developments there. 

"As inexcusable as the revelations here have been, what VA has been doing to Gulf War veterans for twenty years is far worse," he said. "Instead of middle managers lying to senior officials to get bonuses and cover up that veterans aren't getting care, you have senior officials and middle managers lying to Congress, to veterans, and to the medical community, to purposely deny veterans access to care."  

Binns said he was inspired to write the letter by the example of Dr. Sam Foote, the recently retired VA doctor who was the first whistleblower to reveal what was going on in Phoenix.

"It took a long time before the people who could change things finally paid attention to what he was saying," Binns said. "Our committee has been reporting on VA's abuse of Gulf War veterans for a long time, but now there is hope the right people will finally focus on how VA - our government - has been deliberately shafting a quarter of a million men and women who fought for this country." 

Anthony Hardie, a Gulf War veteran and board member of Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) who's testified numerous times before Congress on Gulf War issues, toldThe Reno Dispatch, "VCS hopes Chairman Binns' letter will help bring new attention to fix yet another area where VA is badly broken: VA's utter failure of veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. For the more then one-third of Gulf War veterans suffering from Gulf War Illness, VA has no effective treatments, no implementation of a plan to develop solutions, no confidence in VA's ability to find treatments, and VA denial of Gulf War veterans' disability claims at an overwhelming rate."

Meanwhile, Binns said that while he has heard back from several House and Senate offices, including those that received copies of the letter, "I have not heard anything from the White House or VA."

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Read the full Binns letter here.  

New Study: MS Symptoms may be Reduced by Estrogen; Gulf War MS Rates thought to be Higher

The following article is about a new study that suggests a novel treatment -- a form of estrogen, called estriol -- may reduce MS symptoms.  

MS is thought to be of higher prevalence among veterans of the 1991 Gulf War, but a lack of clear data continues to leave certainty of that belief unclear.  

A 2008 law mandated the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) contract with the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, to determine the prevalence of MS and other neurological diseases in veterans of the 1991 Gulf War, the Iraq War, and the Afghanistan War.  To date, VA has failed to implement the law.  

Among the many provisions in legislation passed unanimously last week by the U.S. House of Representatives, the Gulf War Health Research Reform Act (H.R. 4261), is a "sense of Congress" that VA must abide by this neurological disease prevalence study and numerous other specifically enumerated health research-related laws that VA staff have to date failed to implement.  

-A.H.

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SOURCE:  NPR (Jon Hamilton reporting), June 2, 2014

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/06/02/317355068/pregnancy-hormone-may-reduce-multiple-sclerosis-symptoms


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Pregnancy Hormone May Reduce Multiple 

Sclerosis Symptoms

by JON HAMILTON

June 02, 2014 3:33 AM ET

For decades, women with multiple sclerosis have noticed that they tend to do better while they are pregnant. That has led to an experimental drug for the disease that's based on a hormone associated with pregnancy.

The hormone is a form of estrogen called estriol. It's abundant in a woman's body only when she is pregnant. Adding estriol to treatment with an existing MS drug cut relapses by 47 percent in a study of 158 women presented at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in April.

The result is "quite remarkable," says Rhonda Voskuhl, an author of the study and a neurologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. It suggests that estriol could greatly enhance the effectiveness of current MS drugs, Voskuhl says. Those drugs, which are designed to modulate the immune system, can cost up to $60,000 a year.

“One day during an episode of morning sickness, Melissa Sherak Glasser realized something surprising: Her MS symptoms had gone away.

Multiple sclerosis is a disease that damages the myelin sheath covering nerve fibers. Researchers believe the damage is caused at least in part because the body's own immune cells begin attacking myelin. About 400,000 people in the United States havemultiple sclerosis, with symptoms ranging from muscle weakness or paralysis to difficulty thinking.

The new research on estriol was inspired by decades of anecdotal reports from women like Melissa Sherak Glasser of Woodland Hills, Calif. Glasser is 41 now, but was diagnosed with MS when she was just 15.

An MRI scan showed that Glasser had MS. But Glasser didn't let the disease slow her down much. She was a cheerleader in high school, then went to college and graduate school and got married, despite relapses that caused temporary blindness, vertigo and difficulty walking.She remembers putting one hand into a tub of bathwater to check the temperature and being surprised that it felt cold. "Then I put my other hand in and it was burning hot, and I thought, OK, something's wrong," she says.

When Glasser was in her mid-20s, she got pregnant. And one day, during an episode of morning sickness, she realized something surprising: Her MS symptoms had gone away. "I felt so horrible with all the pregnancy hormones, and I had to laugh," she says.

Glasser reported this to neurologists at UCLA who had been monitoring her MS since she was diagnosed more than a decade earlier. They weren't surprised. They'd heard stories like that before from women with MS. And pregnancy's effect on MS symptoms had been confirmed by a large scientific study in 1998.

So by the time Glasser became pregnant for the first time (she has four children now and was free of MS symptoms during all four pregnancies), Voskuhl and other researchers were already hard at work trying to identify the factor that was protecting pregnant women with MS. "If we could just figure it out, we would have an inroad to a major discovery," Voskuhl says.

Shots - Health News

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How A Spring Birthday Could Pose A Risk For Multiple Sclerosis

The researchers knew that during pregnancy, a woman's immune system changes. "Pregnancy involves a fetus, which has half of the father's proteins on it," Voskuhl says. "So it's half foreign. In order to not reject that half-foreign fetus, the mother's immune system shifts."

Voskuhl figured that whatever was causing that shift was also protecting the woman's nerve fibers from MS. And she suspected a key factor was the hormone estriol.

So the researchers gave estriol to mice with multiple sclerosis and waited to see whether it would help them. "And indeed it did," Voskuhl says. "The mice were not paralyzed; they were walking around fine. It was just a dramatic reduction in their disease." Doses of the pregnancy hormone even worked in male mice.

Voskuhl was confident that estriol could help people with MS. But it took more than a decade to find out.

Drug companies weren't interested in estriol because it isn't a patented chemical, Voskuhl says. So she turned to the National Institutes of Health, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and foundations, including one set up by the family of Melissa Sherak Glasser.

Ultimately, Voskuhl got the millions of dollars she needed to conduct a two-year trial of estriol in women who also were taking the widely used MS drug Copaxone. The success of that trial clears the way for a much larger study that can be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for approval.

Glasser is confident that estriol will ultimately be approved as a treatment for MS and hopes to be one of the first people in the U.S. to get a prescription.

Sgt. Sullivan Center May Newsletter

SOURCE:  Sergeant Sullivan Center

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Confronting and Eradicating Post-Deployment Illnesses Newsletter May 31, 2014 Opening Message  Dear Friends and Supporters:     There has been much exciting news this month, with coverage about our mission on the front page of The Washington Post and an invitation along with other advocacy groups to provide testimony to the Defense Health Board on deployment related lung disease in June. We also are pleased to announce our second $10,000 challenge grant, covered in the Washington Post story over Memorial Day Weekend, to Georgetown University Medical Center to work towards developing a blood biomarker test for Gulf War illnesses - unexplained multi-symptom illnesses that are debilitating and have been found to effect veterans of the post-9/11 wars as well as the '91 war.   Our Marine Corps Marathon Team recruitment is still underway and we continue to accept applications for our Veteran Fellowship for Mission Leadership -- a position which will remain open until filled. Please spread the word about our work and consider signing up to be a Sergeant Sullivan Center Ambassador for the Do More 24 campaign to help us get the most number of individual donors on June 19 and win a $15,000 grant from the United Way. Thank you for your support,                      ### The NEWS ## The Washington Post Covers Sergeant Sullivan Center on Front Page                                                                               On Monday, September 26, Memorial Day, a front page story about The Sergeant Sullivan Center appeared in The Washington Post. The story, by Michael Ruane, focused on the establishment of the Center's initiative to fund research for unexplained veterans' illnesses. The story will reach the Post's circulation of over 500,000 readers. Unexplained post-deployment illnesses are one of the most significant physical health problems plaguing veterans. Last year, the Institute of Medicine reported unexplained chronic respiratory, gastrointestinal, and musculoskeletal (multi-symptom)  illnesses affect post-9/11 veterans as well as one in three 1991 Gulf War Veterans. Over half a million post-9/11 veterans in the VA system have unexplained symptoms (seehealthcare utilization records); this number continues to grow. Independent, dynamic research is essential to unravelling the mysteries of these illnesses. The Sergeant Sullivan Center began funding private research to improve diagnosis of deployment related illnesses last year with a grant for biomarker research to the Center of Excellence on Deployment Related Lung Disease at National Jewish Health, followed by a grant challenge to Georgetown University Medical Center for Gulf War illness biomarker research earlier this year. Defense Health Board to Hold Meeting for Public Comment on Deployment Related Lung Disease After receiving a letter from The Sergeant Sullivan Center, the Defense Health Board considered "the possibility of having a meeting in which interested members of the public" may "address concerns or provide information" and now has scheduled a public comment meeting for June 11. The meeting was announced recently in theFederal Register. According to the announcement, "The purpose of the meeting is for the Public Health Subcommittee members to receive public comments concerning deployment pulmonary health during an open forum. The Subcommittee is reviewing evidence relevant to deployment-related pulmonary disease in Service members and veterans. Comments from the public range from insight on deployment-related pulmonary health issues to personal accounts and objective input."      The Sergeant Sullivan Center will make a statement at the meeting and has also provided travel support to enable the executive director of BurnPits360, Rosie Torres, to provide testimony regarding her personal experience and work. Torres along with her husband, veteran Le Roy Torres, operate a private online registry for veterans with deployment related lung disease and other health issues who, at present, have nowhere else to turn to report their conditions in association with exposure to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. An official registry to record lung and other health problems after exposure to deployment airborne hazards has not yet been implemented despite legal requirements for the VA to establish this registry several months ago. Torres reports she has now received over 3,000 entries on the Burnpit360 registry. Get Involved in Do More 24 The Sergeant Sullivan Center is recruiting Ambassadors to help with the Do More 24 Challenge - Raise the most individual donations on June 19and win a $15,000 grant from the United Way. This is an exciting challenge and there will be more information sent about it next week. But it's more than just fundraising. Ambassadors will play a key role in spreading information about post-deployment illnesses and healthcare options to veterans across the country and will receive a chance to win prizes, as well as an Ambassador's information toolkit and tote bag. Register to Be a Sergeant Sullivan Center Ambassador Today!   SAVE THE DATE - SEPTEMBER 23!  The Annual Sergeant Sullivan Center Awards Ceremony for Excellence in Deployment Health Science will be held on September 23 at 6:30 PM at the Pew Charitable Trusts Conference Center in Washington, DC. This year our honoree is Dr. Steven S. Coughlin. Dr. Coughlin, a former VA epidemiologist, provided testimony to Congress last year about VA's treatment of data related to Gulf War and post-9/11 illnesses that will help generations of veterans get the help they need and lead to improved systems for data sharing and research related to the toxic wounds of war. Read About Our Honoree: "Epidemiologist says VA hid and manipulated data regarding burn pits and Gulf War syndrome," by Kelley Vlahos in The American Conservative.   Get Involved The SSC needs your help. Do you know a veteran who is suffering? Do you know a surgeon, medical doctor, or researcher? Send them our way-we need to connect every provider, every victim. And more than that, we need your support, in time and money. Every dollar you donate is more than tax deductible, it leads to tangible results and saving lives by supporting grants to the nation's preeminent research institutions, advocacy to create better healthcare, and outreach to sick veterans. More @ http://sgtsullivancenter.org/get-involved/.

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VCS News Roundup: Best Coverage of the Current VA Crisis

The following is published with permission from Veterans for Common Sense (VCS).

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VCS News Roundup: Best Coverage of the Current VA Crisis

Posted on May 30, 2014 

The following is a VCS roundup of some of the best current news coverage of the VA crisis:

1.  USA NOW VIDEO:  Heated hearing on VA scandal: ‘Get us the answers!’ | USA NOW

House members grilled top VA top brass on the ever-growing scandal surrounding the VA hospital system. A scathing new report says 1,700 veterans at the Phoenix hospital alone are still waiting for care.

http://www.militarytimes.com/VideoNetwork/3594338992001/Heated-hearing-on-VA-scandal-Get-us-the-answers-USA-NOW&odyssey=mod|video

2.  CBS News shows how VA staff were ordered to and then manipulated data on veteran appointment wait times.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/va-whistleblower-used-computer-trick-to-falsify-appointments/

3. Wall Street Journal explains where VA spends money.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/05/29/explaining-the-vas-size-and-scope-in-five-charts/

4.  USA NOW VIDEO:  VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigns amid scandal

President Obama said he ‘reluctantly’ accepted the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki after meeting with him Friday. A growing number of veterans and lawmakers have demanded Shinseki resign since the scandal began.

http://www.militarytimes.com/VideoNetwork/3594338992001/Heated-hearing-on-VA-scandal-Get-us-the-answers-USA-NOW&odyssey=mod|video

5.  National Journal: Behind Eric Shinseki’s Downfall

The VA secretary who was looking for a second chance after Iraq was undone by an overwhelmed health system and Washington’s hyper-partisan health care politics.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/white-house/behind-eric-shinseki-s-downfall-20140530

Posted in Veterans Articles & News | Tagged Shinseki, VA Scandal | Leave a comment | Edit

Sgt. Sullivan Center Seeking Gulf War or Post-9/11 Veteran for DC Fellowship

The Sergeant Sullivan Center is doing very important work on issues related to  veterans health and Toxic Wounds.  

The following announcement is regarding an exciting one-year fellowship work opportunity in Washington, DC with the Sergeant Sullivan Center.  Recruitment objectives include Post-9/11 and 1991 Gulf War Veterans.  The position will remain open until filled.  

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THE SERGEANT THOMAS JOSEPH SULLIVAN CENTER (SSC) VETERAN FELLOWSHIP FOR MISSION LEADERSHIP

The Sergeant Sullivan Center (SSC) is a growing 501(c)(3) nonprofit veterans healthcare advocacy and medical research grant-making organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Center is named in memory of a Marine Sergeant who died from physical health problems after his deployment to Iraq – what we call post-deployment illnesses: occupational and environmental diseases associated with military service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Founded by the Marine’s family in 2010, The SSC is the only 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the nation exclusively dedicated to confronting and eradicating post-deployment illnesses through public awareness, medical research, and connection among stakeholders (doctors, patients, scientists, etc.). The SSC focuses on addressing the needs of veterans, researchers, and government officials who work on identifying and treating post-deployment illnesses associated with theater environmental and toxic exposures (also known as, toxic wounds).

About the Sergeant Sullivan Center Veteran Fellowship. The SSC Fellow will work full-time at the Center’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., to advance SSC mission priorities through activities designed to build the capacity of the organization to realize its objectives.

The Fellowship will be supervised by the President/CEO, and the Fellow will work closely with the Board of Directors, Advisory Panel, and mission stakeholders around the country, while learning technical and project management skills essential for SSC mission leadership through training and coursework.

Training may include participation in Georgetown University’s graduate certificate program for nonprofit management, an intensive four-day video journalism workshop, medical education classes, and other academic and professional workshops and programs offered in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and elsewhere.

The Fellow will work on all essential elements of assigned projects, including planning, execution, and administration.This will include: website management, blogging and social media;online crowd funding; grant applications; recruiting and coaching marathon runners; completing applications for national marathon events; managing donor communications; fulfilling product orders; organizing databases; event planning; presentations; speaking to members of the press; research and writing. The Fellow will learn multiple aspects of SSC operations. SSC will also provide specialized training in the knowledge and skills needed to implement these operations and to pursue a successful career in nonprofit organization and SSC mission leadership.

Compensation. The Fellowship Stipend for the 12-month term is a total of $41,250 plus tuitions and fees for training. Healthcare premiums are reimbursed up to a cap. Fellowship hours are 9:30 am – 5:30 pm Monday through Friday with an hour for lunch. The Fellowship includes four weeks paid leave, and all federal holidays. Education and training programs may occur on the weekends or weeknights. Some travel will be required.

Applicants should have and demonstrate in the personal essay:

• A commitment to the mission of The Sergeant Sullivan Center.

• Operational experience in the post-9/11 theater of operations (Gulf War service included).

• Strong written and oral communication skills, as well as comfort with Microsoft Office software, Facebook, Twitter, and web-based platforms.

• Willingness to learn new skills and work with people of various backgrounds.

• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision. Strong work ethic.

Veterans of all ages, races, sexes, genders, sexual orientations, national origins, and veterans with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

Veterans who served at enlisted rank are strongly encouraged to apply.

SSC is firmly committed to workplace diversity and equal opportunity, as well as accommodating the employment needs of persons with physical and mental disabilities.

Application Requirements. Submit resume/CV; one letter of recommendation; and a 1-2 page essay (single spaced) describing interest in SSC, our mission, and SSC mission leadership. Submit to Daniel Sullivan, President/CEO, at daniel@sgtsullivancenter.org. Open until filled.

CONTACT US:

The Sergeant Thomas Joseph Sullivan Center

1250 Connecticut Avenue NW Suite 200

Washington, DC 20036

www.sgtsullivancenter.org

(202) 261-6562 or 1-855-SGT-SULLY

Download the Announcement: VeteranFellowshipSSC

Rep. Coffman's Floor Speech on H.R. 4261

 Video courtesy of Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), Chair, U.S. House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations.

House Passes Desert Storm War Memorial Bill

(91outcomes.com - May 28, 2014) - The U.S. House of Representatives tonight unanimously the National Desert Shield Storm and Desert Shield War Memorial Act, H.R. 503, on a vote of 370-0 (Roll call vote No. 242).

The bill was introduced by Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (R-Tenn.-1) at there request of the National Desert Storm War Memorial Association.  Roe said in a statement at the time of the bill's introduction earlier this year:

“Every day we should commemorate and give thanks to the men and women who have devoted their lives to defending freedom. Every soldier who honorably served our nation should be recognized, and that is why I reintroduced the National Desert Storm and Desert Shield War Memorial Act. The sacrifice of those who served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm will be remembered through the building of this memorial.  Our service members who have fought on the front lines to protect this nation deserve our gratitude and utmost respect, and I look forward to working to ensure this memorial is built.” 

In testimony in support of the bill earlier this year, Scott Stump, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran of the 1991 Gulf War and President of the National Desert Storm War Memorial Association, provided three reasons for the memorial.

1) "....To honor the 600,000 Americans who served and make sure that the almost 300 Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice are never ever forgotten...." 

2) Because, "....we liberated Kuwait, a peaceful country that was invaded and whose citizens were held captive for close to 7 months and endured much suffering and unmentionable atrocities at the hands of the Iraqi aggressors. Liberating Kuwait and shielding Saudi Arabia from invasion sent a powerful message not just to Saddam, but to the world"; and because,  

3) "....we also liberated the United States... [from] ....a lot of collective guilt and shame for the way many of our Vietnam Veterans were treated upon returning home.  ....  Desert Storm touched Americans in many different ways. .... if it was not for Desert Storm and the change of attitude toward our military it brought about, our men and women in uniform who are currently serving and who have served in Afghanistan, and Iraq, would not be treated with the dignity and respect that they absolutely deserve."

According to an ABC News article earlier today, the memorial would be funded by private donations, like many other war memorials, and "The bill would authorize Congress to set aside federal land in DC for the memorial. According to the National Desert Storm Memorial Association website, proposed locations include the National Mall (site of the WWII, Vietnam, and Korean War Memorials) and a field near Arlington National Cemetery."  

-Anthony Hardie, 91outcomes.com