Federal doctors lack whistleblower protections

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Federal doctors lack whistleblower protections
Group urges Congress to fix 'dangerous loophole'The Associated Press
Updated: 2:04 p.m. ET Dec. 24, 2004WASHINGTON - Thousands of federal doctors and medical researchers who receive some of the highest salaries in government don't enjoy the same protections to blow the whistle on wrongdoing as other civil servants, a judge has ruled.



Administrative Judge Raphael Ben-Ami of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board ruled recently that Dr. Jonathan Fishbein, a National Institutes of Health specialist, could not seek the board's protection from firing under the Whistleblower Protection Act.

Fishbein was hired by NIH in 2003 to help improve AIDS research practices. He alleges he is being fired because he uncovered concerns about sloppy research practices that might endanger patient safety.


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Lets fix it!!!

If any Federal employee blows the whistle they are shunned by their supervisors and immediately regulated to some obscure position, never to see the light of day again.

An excellent example of this is the two FBI Agents that reported flight school activity of the actual 9/11 terrorists prior to their actions. Wonder why the media whores haven't had them on all the roundtable talk shows? Wonder why they were ignored by all when they were called to DC to testify?

There have been many Federal employees that have "blown the whistle," on corrupt activities by their higher ups.......nothing happens, and the whistle blower loses.

... as a 'whistle-blower' unless they've formally reported actual (not perceived) wrongdoing to an outside regulatory or enforcement agency. All employers, including government, steadfastly proclaims that such reports should be made internally first, supposedly to permit the organization's in-place management to review and correct the problem before being 'embarrassed' by some outside agency. "Team players" will accommodate this management direction - which often only offers management a chance to terminate the boat-rocker before they get any kind of legal coverage. If anybody was really serious about protecting whistle-blowers, the laws would be given teeth and far, far greater coverage of people making such complaints. Instead, even their co-workers treat them as lepers - fearing "guilt by association."

Oh, and it's NOT 'protection' - it's only a 'cause of action' and the plaintiff not only must prove their qualification and prove the 'cause of action' but must prove the direct and substantiatable economic harm for any kind of compensation - and future harms are not accommodated. When a person's career is effectively exterminated, they have life-long penalties for which there's no relief.