UCSF apologizes for 'unethical' experiments with mosquitoes and pesticides on prisoners decades ago
Jordan Parker
Dec. 21, 2022|
Updated: Dec. 21, 2022 10:03 p.m.
UCSF has apologized after an internal investigation found experiments performed on incarcerated people at a Bay Area prison by two faculty members in the 1960’s and 1970’s were unethical.
According to the newly released report, two UCSF dermatologists — one of whom remains at the university — experimented on “at least” 2600 people incarcerated at the California Medical Facility, a prison hospital in Vacaville. The report said that the experiments did not appear to have the green light from a UCSF committee that was supposed to approve any studies on human subjects. Records of the subjects providing informed consent, indicating they had full knowledge of the ramifications and were voluntarily participating, were also sparse.
The experiments were performed by Dr. Howard Maibach, who is still on UCSF’s dermatology department, and Dr. William Epstein, a former chair of the Dermatology Department who died in 2006. Maibach, 93, still practices at the UCSF Dermatology Clinic at Mount Zion.
The report is the first under UCSF’s recently created Program for Historical Reconciliation, which aims to “respond to questions and concerns raised by our community about UCSF’s history.” It was unclear what future reports from the program would cover.
The report raised ethical concerns to how Epstein and Maibach — who expressed regret over the failure of his research to meet modern standards in response to the report — conducted their research. It found that in many of the cases there was no record of informed consent by the research subjects.
More:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/UCSF-apologizes-for-unethical-experiments-17670940.php#:
or
https://archive.ph/sbK70#selection-3207.0-3207.297