X-Message-Number: 7590
Subject: Visser
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 09:07:37 -0500
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <>

From:  (Michelle Olga Visser)
> 
> We have little or no idea what has been going on lately on this
> forum.  What we have noticed is much comment about one of our
> cryoprotectant solutions being bandied about by Kent/Wowk/Harris and
> company, all of whom have no ethical or authorized access to any
> information.

I note that you do not claim that their information is incorrect.

Most scientists I know are big believers in the scientific method, in
which information is published to permit replication of results. You
appear to be attempting to prevent the spread of information,
apparently to prevent failure to replicate your results.

Any claim that this is needed for patent protection is, by the way,
blatently false. In the US, you may apply for patents up to a year
after publication, and everywhere else at worst you can fully publish
as soon as your initial application is made. You have no excuse for
requiring secrecy.

> As far as the AIDS furore goes, some information leaked prematurely to
> the press.

Dr. Visser, might I note that you were going directly to high
government officials in your country to seek substantial funding for
research conducted under what were at best dubious conditions? If your
claim is that you wish that the press hadn't found out so that you
could have received this funding without any public input or comment,
well, that doesn't speak well for you, either.

> The information is confidential, and the research is private.

So you are, in fact, injecting people with your toxic cryoprotectant
and stating this is curing them of AIDS, eh?

I am not going to claim you are a charlatan. However, you are using
most of the standard techniques employed by them -- secrecy, claims of
major discoveries that cannot be discussed in public, attempts to
bypass conventional scientific process (especially to get money) etc.

In short, although I do not know that you are defrauding the public,
your work is gaining the smell of fraud, and almost entirely as a
result of your own actions. If you choose to continue along this path,
you will have to suffer the consequence that lots of people will gain
a firmer belief that you are committing fraud. This is entirely your
own fault, and not that of the cold and horrible world that (in
standard charlatan form) I expect you will start blaming, very loudly
and in public, some time soon.


Perry


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