U.S. rethinks scientific cooperation

The attitude, policy and practices of the Obama administration toward international scientific cooperation represent a 180-degree reversal to the previous administration. Examples are legion, but I’ll witness just one, highly relevant to a world facing unprecedented risks of nuclear radiation, whether due to accident or acts of terrorism. Here’s the question: Is the United States prepared for nuclear holocaust, and if not, what is the United States doing about it? Are we consulting and collaborating with other countries, or are we just going it alone?

Part II:

U.S.-European collaboration

When in 2006-07 the World Health Organization (WHO) brought up the question of U.S.-European collaboration with the leadership of the U.S. administration at the time, we hit a stone wall. Officials then responsible for U.S. national security and nuclear preparedness told us they could not cooperate because: (1) They did not understand the science; (2) if it involved stem cells they would have to get the (unlikely) approval of the White House; and (3) the United States was self-sufficient, and therefore didn’t need international scientific cooperation with foreign countries or the United Nations.

Faced with this state of affairs, we realized we had to bypass the executive level of the U.S. administration, and instead take steps to contact the U.S. Congress and U.S. agencies and universities directly. Then, everything changed.

In 2008, Fliedner’s Radiation Medicine Group sponsored a highly successful “U.S./European Consultation Workshop� on radiation emergency response and preparedness at Ulm University and nearby Schloss Reisensburg. Not only was the European Union fully represented, but so was the U.S. scientific community.

American participants included scientists from: the National Institutes of Health, Health and Human Services, Office of Preparedness and Response, National Marrow Donor Program, American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Radiation Emergency Center at Oak Ridge, and Division of Cellular Therapy, Duke University, among others.

    u    u    u

The work of the U.S./European Consultation was highly technical. The outcome had important implications: There was agreement on the need on both sides of the Atlantic to share and harmonize scientific technologies and clinical management of radiation victim cases. Discussion centered on assessment of damage after total body irradiation, especially of the stem and progenitor cell pools as a prerequisite for the decision on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The consultation reviewed implications for multiorgan involvement and prognosis for patients under alternative therapeutic measures.

Effective use of these technologies requires training of many medical staff, responders and others to be prepared for radiation emergencies. The consultation proposed to create an international registry of victim clinical histories to facilitate study and research on the course of health impairments and analysis of patho-physiological principles and mechanisms. (For details see “Stem Cells, Multiorgan Failure in Radiation Emergency Medical Preparedness,� published by Stem Cells Express, AlphaMed Press, January 2009.)

    u    u    u

How about the future? The next steps in radiation preparedness must include pre-planned cooperative agreements among U.S. hospitals, cities, states and even countries (notably Canada and Mexico) in anticipation of possible mass scale nuclear disasters which could cause tens of thousands of casualties. Thus, if Buffalo, N.Y., is hit, the hospitals of Rochester, N.Y., and Toronto, Canada, will by prior agreement take the excess casualties that Buffalo can not handle. If Toronto is hit, the hospitals of Buffalo and Rochester will take the excess.

There is no way that the “for profit� and “free market� approach, so favored by the previous U.S. administration, will protect the American people from the after-effects of nuclear holocaust. It requires socially responsible advance planning by national, state and local government and institutions. The previous U.S. administration was unresponsive to the problem, as well as to the offered solution. The Obama administration, by contrast, is taking the nuclear threat seriously and recognizes the importance of stem cell work in radiation medicine.

The foregoing example is but one of many new initiatives in U.S.-international scientific and humanitarian collaboration. In 2009, the future of U.S.-United Nations cooperation is looking particularly bright. The Obama administration shows a refreshing new interest and respect for science, reason, pragmatism, morality and the rule of law. America is emerging from the darkness into the light.

Sharon resident Anthony Piel is a former director and legal counsel of the World Health Organization.