Federal AIDS Research Woes ‘Not Crippling’

Investigators who looked into charges of sabotage and mismanagement in AIDS research at the Centers for Disease Control found poor morale and possible “minor tampering” with experiments but nothing that would cripple the agency’s work, they reported today.

The Institute of Medicine, a branch of the congressionally chartered National Academy of Sciences, began investigating in September at the urging of Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. (R-Conn.) and top CDC management following publicized allegations of sabotage, stonewalling and mismanagement.

The institute’s investigating panel reported today that the CDC’s AIDS research has been plagued by supervisory turnover, low staff morale and possible sabotage of minor experiments by squabbling researchers.

After making fundamental contributions in the initial identification of acquired immune deficiency syndrome, its risk groups and its transmission through blood, the CDC AIDS Program Laboratory is now only “moderately productive,” the investigators reported.

“More can be done to motivate, challenge and lead the research team,” they continued. “No team spirit has been forged. . . . The demands and pressures . . . (have) generated internal competition rather than uniting individuals.”

Five of 12 doctorate-level AIDS scientists at the CDC left in 1984-85.