The Facts on The Hilleman Chair and Paul Offit

I am not an investigative reporter, and don't even think of myself as a "citizen journalist".  But maybe I could give lessons in investigation.

On July 25, 2008, CBS aired Sharyl Attkisson's :  "How Independent Are Vaccine Defenders?"

Attkisson made much of Offit holding an "endowed chair" funded (in part) by a drug company.  She was inaccurate about the amount of the endowment (alleging $1.5 million, instead of the actual $2 million endowment).  First, she made it sound like a dirty deal between Merck and Offit.  It wasn't -- the chair creation had nothing to do with Offit.  Second, she made it sound as if the funds were given directly to Offit.  They weren't.

One of Orac's commenters clarified the issue as follows:

An endowed chair gives a researcher a constant supply of funding without the need to write grant proposals. It allows the researcher to work on very self-directed projects and do more exploratory work.

The chair endowment is held by the institution (CHOP and Penn in this case) not the professor. So, Dr. Offit doesn't have $1.5M (or, $2M as those interested in accuracy have noted) to work with. He [as part of his employment, not for his personal use]  has the proceeds of this endowment. Think of it as a trust fund for the researcher---she/he can't touch the principal. Also, the institution controls the endowment and who gets the chair after the professor (Dr. Offit in this case) steps down or retires. [The institutions holding the endowment and the endowed chair]  have to follow the restrictions of the endowment--which likely stipulate that a vaccine researcher gets the money--but Merck is likely not involved directly in deciding future chair holders.

Also note that the endowed chair was created in 2005--after Dr. Offit's vaccine was patented and put to use. So, it couldn't have influenced his actions to create the vaccine. Also, since the endowment is already in place, it doesn't affect Dr. Offit's decision to speak out in favor of vaccine safety. He could say vaccines are evil and Merck wouldn't be able to do anything about the chair.

I spent about 120 seconds looking for the announcement of the chair's establishment.  That's all it took to find that the Merck foundation funded 3/4 of the chair ($1.5 million) and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) contributed the other 1/4, as the press release announcing the endowment's creation revealed.

The Hilleman Chair will accelerate the pace of vaccine research at the University of Pennsylvania. The Merck Company Foundation will provide a $1.5 million endowment, which will be held jointly by University of Pennsylvania and CHOP. CHOP will contribute $500,000 in matching funds, bringing the total endowment to $2 million.

Formally, the position is called "The Maurice R. Hilleman Chair in Vaccinology from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine". It was created to honor Maurice Hilleman shortly before his death.   Offit was named to the chair later in 2005.

Comments

[Squillo]

For an "investigative reporter," Ms. Attkisson is woefully uninquisitive.

She demonstrates a fundamental lack of knowledge or understanding about the topics she writes about, and what's worse, she doesn't seem too fussed about finding out or about correcting errors. I've seen better reporting from teens working on the school paper.