RFK Jr. Involved in Med Board ‘Spectacle’; Doc’s Fertility Supplement; Illegal Lab

Welcome to the latest edition of Investigative Roundup, highlighting some of the best investigative reporting on healthcare each week.

RFK Jr. Involved in Med Board ‘Spectacle’

A Maine physician who had her license suspended after prescribing unproven treatments for COVID-19 reportedly said that she has succeeded in turning the resulting state investigation into a “‘spectacle,'” the Maine Monitor reported.

The investigation into Meryl Nass, MD, began in December 2021, after a hospitalist reported her to the Maine Board of Licensure, the Monitor reported. A patient with COVID pneumonia had showed up at the hospital needing supplemental oxygen and said they had been diagnosed with COVID “over the phone” by Nass and prescribed a 5-day supply of the antiparasitic drug ivermectin.

“In the 18 months since, Nass and her disciplinary case have become a cause for anti-vaccination advocates, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and far-right publications,” the Monitor wrote. Kennedy’s Children’s Health Defense has live-streamed her administrative hearings and is paying her legal fees, the article stated.

The Maine Board of Licensure brought disciplinary action against Nass over allegations of violations related to patient care and competence, medical recordkeeping, and “‘truth-telling and misrepresentation,'” the Monitor reported. Nass continues to fight her suspension, reportedly saying that the allegations against her have “no legal justification.”

At the same time, other physicians have expressed concern regarding those in the field who have pushed medical misinformation during and after the pandemic, the Monitor noted, citing reporting from the Washington Post that also mentions the Maine Board of Licensure’s action against Nass.

Prominent Fertility Doc’s Unproven Supplement

A prominent New York fertility doctor steers his patients to supplemental DHEA to boost fertility — though he doesn’t always disclose he owns a company that produces it, the Washington Post reported.

Norbert Gleicher, MD, who practices in a clinic on New York’s Upper East Side, the Post noted “tells most of his patients to take DHEA, short for dehydroepiandrosterone, to help their ovarian follicles mature in preparation for in vitro fertilization (IVF),” the Post wrote. “Among the brands he recommends is one sold by a company he owns — an arrangement he acknowledged in an interview is a potential conflict of interest.”

Though the fertility doctor told the Post he doesn’t always directly inform every patient of the stake, he also told the outlet, “I think the patients who care, know about it.”

Evidence that the over-the-counter steroid hormone supplement can improve fertility is weak, but Gleicher said he believes it’s “strong and that he is driven by a single goal: helping the most desperate patients get pregnant,” the Post wrote.

Though Gleicher has co-authored studies showing better IVF results and higher pregnancy rates for women who took DHEA, none of the studies were randomized controlled trials, the Post noted.

In 2016, Gleicher wrote in a comment to a medical journal that DHEA was an “‘inexpensive and practically risk-free'” treatment and that randomized controlled trials would not be “worth the effort,” the Post reported.

Thousands of Gallons of Biological Waste Removed from Illegal Lab

More than 5,000 gallons of biological waste were removed from an illegal laboratory months after the facility in Reedley, California was discovered, Insider reported.

“I’ll be honest, this is an unprecedented event that has happened and really this is the first lab that has ever popped up like this where we’ve needed enforcement,” Jesalyn Harper, a code enforcement officer for the city of Reedley who first responded to issues at the building in December, told Insider. Harper added that, “from our understanding, the warehouse itself was supposed to be completely empty.”

After the lab was searched earlier this year, the facility was “found to contain medical equipment and dozens of unlabeled vials, some of which were later determined to hold bacterial and viral infectious agents, including E. Coli, chlamydia, herpes, and hepatitis,” Insider wrote, citing health department documents.

Additionally, “investigators found about 1,000 lab mice,” that a representative for the company operating the lab reportedly told Insider had been bioengineered, the outlet reported.

Harper told Insider that nothing in the lab posed a current risk to the public. Of the mice, Harper told the outlet, “They’re technically genetically modified, but they’re not genetically modified for what everyone believes,” and that there was no evidence the mice on-site were contagious or had been released into the city.

Attorneys for the Fresno County Department of Public Health, which investigated the incident in addition to the city department, and the president of Prestige Biotech, Inc., which operated the lab, did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Insider reported.

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