Five days ago, I posted a blog titled “PLEASE CALL Senators TODAY To Save Our Troops’ Families From the FRAUD In The MOLD Issue”. The gist of the blog is that a 501(c)3 nonprofit, Military Matters Foundation (MMF), is leading the charge to cause real and much needed legislative oversight of the Private-Public Venture (PPV) military housing landlords, their contractors, the DOD, and the military physicians.

On November 22nd MMF sent a letter to the 27 senators of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC). They requested that on this coming Tuesday, December 3rd, that the senators publicly ask seven important questions of the U.S. GAO auditor and the DOD leaders — who will be testifying before the SASC.

The basic gist of what the military families want answered, is:

1) why haven’t the senators, DOD, or GAO acted to stop the scientific fraud in the mold issue that began in 2002 and is used extensively by military housing landlords, DOD miseducated military physicians, toxic tort defense attorneys and others as false proof that the moldy military housing allegedly can’t cause brain injuries; and

2) why are the landlords and their contractors still not being mandated to follow industry standards that are purposed to safely maintain and remediate the military housing.

To encourage the senators to ask the key questions on December 3rd, MMF issued a Call To Action/Petition. What they want (and need!) is for the public and those with superior knowledge of the deep seated problems to support their efforts aimed to cause better legislative and DOD oversight of military housing, housing maintenance, and of military physician education.

IAQ Pros & Environmental Physicians Answer the Military Families’ Call To Action!

In 2016, environmental physicians and researchers were key in causing the military housing landlord, Lincoln Military Housing LLC, et.al., to be held accountable for negligent causation of brain injury — via meeting a courtroom standard burden of proof that moldy military housing can indeed cause debilitating cognitive dysfunction.

This weekend, the environmental medicine professionals answered MMF’s Call. They shared MMF’s Petition/Call To Action on their widely-viewed website, Surviving Mold. The environmental medicine professionals strongly support the need for military physicians to be properly educated of how to recognize, diagnose, and treat sick building related illnesses, including debilitating brain injuries.

Also this weekend, indoor air quality (IAQ) professionals answered the Call. MMF’s Call To Action/Petition may be read on the website of IAQ Radio. IAQ Radio is “the voice of the indoor air quality industry”. Over the past thirteen years they have created an extensive audio library of interviews with experts on the subject of the built environment and health. They are strong supporters that those who are maintaining and remediating the military housing be properly trained and made to adhere to the industry standards established by the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC).

So….the answers of how to protect the military families from fraud, waste, and abuse in the military housing debacle are already there. What’s missing are the questions from senators and answers from the GAO and DOD re: who is not providing adequate oversight which enables the fraud to rage on, and why this is being enabled to continue?

PLEASE ANSWER THE CALL

Follow the directions on MMF’s website of how YOU can contact the senators of the SASC and encourage them to ask the needed questions; or simply CLICK HERE to sign MMF’s Petition.

Close to 5000 people have already signed! Will YOU join us to help protect the lives of the families of those who risk their lives to protect all of our families? We need your help before the upcoming Tuesday SASC hearing.

The Petition states: Call to Action- a Change.org petition regarding Military Housing by The Military Matters Foundation

Military bases must remove mold by IICRC S520 standard and licensed professionals

Updated November 26, 2019

CALL OF ACTION!

Military Matters Foundation
Nov 26, 2019 —

United States military members and their families are being made direly ill from their contaminated military housing. Adding devastating insult to injury, they are not getting medical help from the military physicians that they need in order to recover.

On November 22, 2019 we sent a letter to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee members asking for clarification of why military physicians are not being properly trained to treat military personnel and their families’ disabilities caused by substandard military housing; and why no one appears to be moving to correct this problem. Reuters has deemed it an “Ambushed at Home”.

We only have a few days before the next U.S. Senate Hearing on December 3rd regarding this problem that is devastating military families and weakening the strength of our military.

Please help us flood Armed Services Committee senators with calls and emails in support of the need for questions to be asked of why military physicians are not being trained how to diagnose, treat, and cure the military-housing-caused illnesses.

Will you make a phone call or send an email to senators to make this nightmare of insult to already devastating injury for our military families end?

It’s easy to do. Takes no time at all. Just open this link to https://www.themilitarymatters.com/ and follow the directions.

Thank you. Military Matters Foundation Team

Please CLICK HERE to sign it!

Thank you,
Sharon Kramer

NOW is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country!

Military Matters Foundation (MMF) is asking for your voice to protect the families of those who give their lives to protect all of our families. They are asking that over the next three days you contact U.S. senators in support of the need for military physicians to be trained to know how to recognize, diagnose and treat sick-housing caused illnesses.

CALL TO ACTION

Military families are becoming gravely ill from their contaminated military housing. They are being retaliated against and ridiculed when they complain. Military doctors are not being trained how to treat them, which causes them to become even sicker.

Their requests for insurance-covered referrals to environmental and functional medicine physicians, who do know how to treat the sick-housing-caused-illnesses, are being denied. This is leaving the injured families to have to pay from their own pockets for needed medical care. Most cannot afford it.

Reuters is calling the multi-billion-dollar fraud, designed for profiting from the squalid military housing conditions, an “Ambush at Home” for our service members and their children.

On December 3rd the Senate Arms Services Committee (SASC) is holding a hearing. They are going to ask military leaders of the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) auditor questions of why and how the fraud in the contaminated military housing debacle grew to be so large that it is now crippling troop readiness; and what is being done to correct it.

No senator questions or oversight of the role the mis-training of military physicians plays in enabling the Ambush to continue????

The senators do not appear to be intending to ask any questions of what role the DOD has played via miseducating military doctors with scientific fraud. There is much fraud that has been sold to military doctors as legimitate science. It claims to prove that the military housing cannot cause the debilitating symptoms that the families report, including but not limited to brain injuries.

MMF is a 501(c)3 nonprofit. They network with other military advocacy organizations to help the military families who are greatly suffering from the ongoing fraud in military housing maintenance and in military health care.

They sent a letter on November 22nd to all the SASC senators “RE: Ongoing harm to military families caused by lack of oversight of the Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI)”.

They stated that the military families want the senators to ask the DOD and GAO seven questions. To quote:

“Toward achieving the goals of providing safe military housing, needed medical care for military personnel and their families, and for the future strength of the United States military; on December 3rd, please ask Ms. Field [of the GAO] and the military leaders the following:

1. What is the Department of Defense doing to ensure that those responsible for writing military health policies are issuing directives that aid providers in recognizing, diagnosing and treating the various forms of environmental illness associated with sick buildings?

2. Who is ultimately responsible to ensure that military providers are appropriately educated and trained and are subsequently able to perform the proper diagnostic workup on patients with signs and symptoms indicative of environmental illness resultant from exposures in negligently built and maintained military housing?

3. What is currently being done to ensure that military providers are knowledgeable about the scientifically proven ability of Mold to cause debilitating cognitive and neurological injuries?

4. Some military physicians are acknowledging that they do not know how to treat the building related illnesses. They are writing medically necessary referrals to Mold-literate environmental physicians. But their referrals are being denied by MTF commands, despite the fact that TriCare is approving and agreeing to pay for the services. Why are the referrals being denied?

5. Who is ordering the commanders at the MTFs to deny referrals?

6. What is being done to ensure that the cost of medically necessary care, resultant from exposures to negligently built and maintained military housing, is subrogated to the PPV landlords and/or their property casualty insurers?

7. Will a military housing registry, similar to the lead registry, be developed and implemented to track the health issues that have arisen from exposures to Mold, toxic water, asbestos, radon, and soil contamination?

Thank you for your attention to this matter. We strongly believe this requires your urgent attention as it is only continuing to get worse and the health of our military members must be a priority.”

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS IN THEIR TIME OF NEED. They need YOUR VOICE to help to assure that the senators ask these questions. MMF and the military families are asking for the public to call and email SASC senator-members over the next three days (Nov 25th – 27th) and,

“Say your name, the state you are calling from, and if applicable on which base you reside. Then say: I am calling in support of the need for Senator X to ask the GAO and military leaders the questions that were suggested by Military Matters Foundation. Thank you”.

If you email, please cut and paste the following and send it to the senator’s staffers’ email addresses which are provided on MMF’s website.

​
Subject line: I support the need to ask questions about military physician education
​
Dear Senator X,

On December 3rd, please ask Ms. Field of the GAO and the leaders of the military, the seven questions that were suggested to you by Military Matters Foundation. Our troops deserve to have their families receive proper medical care that is needed because of the lack of oversight of the private-public-venture (PPV) military housing landlords and their contractors.

Thank you,
Name,
State,
and Base (if applicable).

It is simple to do and takes no time at all!  The letter they sent, the senators’ phone numbers and email addresses are provided on the MMF website with their CALL TO ACTION.

One may also find the senate contact info HERE.

If one has questions, they can contact MMF through their website or at this email address: helpmilitaryfamiliesnow@gmail.com 

Follow Military Matters Foundation on Facebook @militarymatters2

PLEASE MAKE THE CALLS, SEND THE EMAILS, & ASK OTHERS TO DO SO, TOO!

A little over a year ago, reporters from Reuters began investigating and writing of the lead problems in the private-public venture (PPV) military housing at bases across the country. To their surprise, it wasn’t so much the lead in the housing that concerned the most families. It was the mold and the retaliation experienced when the families complained of being sickened from the moldy military housing. One may read the series of Reuters articles at the link “Ambushed at Home”.

With the media spotlight once again shining on legislative lack of effective oversight of a government agency (this time it’s the Department of Defense and the DOD’s lack of oversight of the private sector military housing landlords and their contractors) the good senators jumped on the opportunity to hold public hearings about the problem. Some have professed to be utterly shocked to learn how bad the problem really is and have vowed to work with the DOD to provide better oversight to correct it. One may watch their public hearings on the subject HERE and HERE.

What they also did was direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate where the problems with the landlords and the services provided could be stopped by better oversight of and by the DOD. The GAO report is soon to be publicly released. The Senate Arms Services Committee is scheduled to hold yet another public hearing on the matter on December 3, 2019.

They have titled the upcoming hearing “Government Accountability Office on Privatized Housing Findings to Include Responses from the Military Services on Ongoing Reports of Substandard Housing Conditions and Services”. Those scheduled to testify and to answer the senators’ questions are Ms. Elizabeth Field of the GAO and several leaders of the United States military. One may view the Dec 3rd meeting agenda HERE.

It is highly unlikely at best, that the senators have no idea about the deeply seated lies of the health effects of mold; and how this big lie has been harming the military families and thousands of others for many years.

Anyone who has been involved in the mold issue for very long, knows that it is not plausible that the good senators are just now becoming aware of the problems caused by indoor mold and the fraud in the military housing issue. I have been making trips to DC since 2004 to ask the good senators to stop the fraud in the mold issue. Several others, such as the late Mary Mulvey Jacobson, have been going to DC seeking help to stop it even longer than I have.

My departed friend, Mary, was a fine Irish woman from Boston. In 2006, she and I got close to shutting down the science fraud in the mold issue by causing a GAO audit to be ordered by the late Senator Edward Kennedy. At the time he was ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee (Senate HELP). That final 2008 GAO audit report was titled “Indoor Mold: Better Coordination of Research on Health Effects and More Consistent Guidance Would Improve Federal Efforts” One may read it HERE.

Unfortunately, in February of 2007, the follow key element was deleted from the original scope of the GAO audit leaving no one to be held accountable for promulgating standards based on scientific fraud penned by old tobacco scientists with close ties to the CDC, USDOJ, DOD, EPA and prestigious universities throughout the country:

What medical and scientific standards are used in determining the admissibility of evidence of both acute and persistent health consequences resulting from exposure to mold? Which individuals and organizations have promulgated these standards and what, if any, conflicts of interest exist regarding these standards?

This is what has largely caused several of the old tobacco scientists (who morphed into mold experts and high-paid mold litigation expert defense witnesses in the early 2000s) to continue to be enabled to influence federally-backed educational materials that are used to set policies and physician educational materials to this very day. (See 2007 WSJ article about who has been setting the policies based on junk science since 2002 that is used to deny liability for causation of disabilities and deaths from water damaged buildings.)

And so here we are in 2019, eleven years after the last GAO audit report issued of how the federal government mishandles the mold issue, asking the good senators and the GAO again to shut down the fraud and conflicts of interest in the issue, once and for all.

Sadly, early evidence indicates that, once again, the good senators will not stop the miseducation of military physicians. As a result the December 3rd hearing is most likely going to be just another useless taxpayer funded, dog and pony show – where questions which direly need to be asked and answered about the ongoing fraud on the medical side of the mold issue, will not even be asked.

The writing appears to be on the wall.  Ms. Field told me in March of this year that the scope of the current GAO audit does not include examining problems in the military physicians’ education.  As such, they are going to make the same mistakes they have been making for nearly twenty years.  I.e. myopically promote the false concept that all which needs to be done by the United States government is to cause the clean up of the PPV military housing with no questions asked of the life time of illnesses and disabilities that several of the military families will continue to experience forever — from lack of needed medical care.

The military families across the country have the help and support of many of us who have tried to stop the fraud in the mold issue for a long time. They see that us old timers are telling them the truth about the fraud on a daily basis; and they see the impact it is having on their sick families’ lives. They know what questions the good senators need to ask of the GAO and DOD leaders to really shut down the fraud in the PPV military housing disaster; particularly in relation to disabilities caused by mold.

The families are fed up with not being able to obtain proper medical care from the mis-trained military physicians – which helps the PPV landlords, their insurers, and the DOD avoid liability for causation of the families’ building-related environmental illnesses, disabilities and deaths.

Toward the goal of causing the good senators to cause the DOD to shut down the fraud in the military physician education, several individual military housing advocacy groups have put out surveys and/or are making plans to show up in force in DC on the 3rd.

Military Matters Foundation, whose co-founder spoke before the Arms Committee in February of this year, wants the military families to report via survey if they are satisfied with the assistance they have thus far received from their elected U.S. senators; so the senators may understand why the families are still being hurt and the issue direly needs more of their attention.

The Belvoir Housing Advocacy Group out of Virginia in conjunction with Advocates for Healthy Housing out of Mississippi, want the families to report via survey of the diverse and severe symptoms they have experienced after moving into the negligently maintained military housing.

Operation Mission Ready (whose founder won a federal lawsuit by jury trial in 2016 against a PPV landlord for negligent causation of brain injury from moldy military housing) is encouraging all military families who will be attending the Dec 3rd hearing to wear red –as a display of how many are seeing red from the ongoing mistreatment of the military families and the lack of effective legislative oversight which causes it to continue.

Military Housing Advocacy Network, which was instrumental in causing Reuters to begin to write of the lead problem in the PPV housing last year, is still instrumental in helping to cause and shed light on the need for change. Their membership is growing daily.

There are various other groups and individuals who advocate for the military families on local levels at individual military bases. Some also advocate for the health and safety of troops living in substandard barracks (which has nothing to do with the PPV landlords’ negligence. Barrack maintenance and needed health care for barrack-dwellers is overseen by DOD agencies directly)

So…the point of this blog is this: If you are someone who cares about the health and safety of our troops and their families, please call your U.S. senator and tell them to stop avoiding the old elephant in the room; and start asking the GAO and DOD questions about the dishonest litigation defense arguments written into U.S. health policies, practices and physician educational materials.

It is long past time for our nation’s leaders to really provide oversight of this matter and make all of the fraud in the mold issue and the PPV military housing disaster, cease.

Sharon Noonan Kramer

P.S. If one wants to understand how I know so much about the systematic instillation of scientific fraud in physician education and policies over mold-induced illnesses; and how I know that the way it continues is far worse than merely lack of U.S. senators’ oversight; please read the April 2019 Health Impact News article “One Woman’s Relentless Pursuit of the Truth as a Toxic Mold Whistle-blower“.

On June 11, 2019, I traveled to Los Angeles. I made an oral request that the voting Regents of the University of California Health Services Committee (HSC) “take an up or down vote” on August 13, 2019 if they are going to allow the UC name to continue to be misused to harm the public, including U.S. military families, with scientific fraud in the mold issue.

One may watch the video of my 6/11/19 oral request to the Regents here:

The two page written request which they received states:

Sharon Kramer
2031 Arborwood Place
Escondido, CA 92029
760-822-8026
June 11, 2019

To the Regents of the University of California (UC) HEALTH SERVICES COMMITTEE (HSC) members.

Re: Please calendar for 8/13/19 and vote to stop the UC name from being misused to cause discrimination of the sick, disabled and dying via flawed health policy papers, physician educational materials, claims handling practices and in mold litigations.

This request to you is also made by [12 minute] video. Please see it at: https://youtu.be/OPTp9n055mc “6.11.19 UC Regents HSC Meeting. Agenda Item Request for 8.13.19”

Dear Regent,

I spoke at the April 2019 HSC meeting. To quote from your minutes “Sharon Kramer expressed concern about bad living conditions for families living on U.S. military bases and health hazards associated with mold. These hazards should not be downplayed or discounted.”

I provided documentation which brought to your attention that a 2006 medical journal publication with the UC name on it had made its way into the March 2019 Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center (NMCPHC) directive for military physicians.

I provided documentation to you which showed that I was able to help troops and their families dodge the bullet of the junk science that was about to be used against them as proof that the moldy military housing is not harming them. The way I was able to do this was by sending one email to NMCPHC showing that what they were teaching the doctors is based on junk science discredited by Institute of Medicine (IOM). It was penned by expert defense witnesses in mold litigations. (Attached hereto as EXH 1 is the email communication with NMCPHC)

I also provided documentation that the unofficial seal of the UC is being misused by Dr. Andrew Saxon, Emeritus UCLA, on reports that he is writing when serving as an expert defense witness, interstate, in mold litigations; and that he is misstating fact for profit when enabling insurer fraud in mold litigation. (Attached hereto as EXH 2 is an excerpt of one of Dr. Saxon’s litigation defense reports from 2017).

With all due respect, the HSC really needs to take measures to shut down this scam that continues to harm thousands and that has relied heavily on the UC name as the legitimizing factor for bogus science 2002. (Attached hereto as EXH 3 is the 2007 Wall Street Journal article “Amid Suits Over Mold Expert Wear Two Hats, Authors of Science Papers Also Serve for the Defense in Mold Litigations”, explaining how and why the scam came to be; and describing how the UC has profited from it since 2002)

People have been asking the UC Regents to address this problem since 2010. (Attached hereto as EXH 4 is the April [May] 2010 request to the Regents and the attached exhibits showing how the National Apartment Association (NAA) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are misusing the UC name to promote false science in mold litigations.). Dr. Saxon was also an expert defense witness in this case, as was his co-author of the junk science, Bruce Kelman.

The public needs your help. Please make this deeply seated fraud stop.

1. Please request that the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (JOEM) retract the paper from publication, titled “Adverse Human Health Effects Associated with Molds in the Indoor Environment” by Bruce J. Kelman & Bryan Hardin of Veritox, Inc. and Andrew Saxon of UCLA. It was sunset as a position statement of ACOEM in 2015, yet one would never know it from looking at their journal. It is still used extensively in mold litigations.

2. Please request that the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) & nonprofit Manhattan Institute Center for Legal Policy (CLP) retract the paper from publication titled “A Scientific View of the Health Effects of Mold”; with stated authorship of Bruce J. Kelman, Bryan Hardin, Coreen Robbins of Veritox, Inc. and Andrew Saxon of UCLA. [Dr. Saxon has stated under oath that he did not co-author this paper. The contract, cancelled check made to Veritox, and under oath testimony confirm that only Mr. Kelman and Mr. Hardin co-authored it.]

3. Please request that the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI) retract from publication the paper titled “The Medical Effects of Mold Exposure” with stated authorship of Andrew Saxon of UCLA, Robert Bush of University of Wisconsin, Abba I. Terr of Stanford University, Robert Wood of Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Jay Portnoy of Children’s Mercy Hospital of Kansas City from publication. [It was sunset as a position statement of AAAAI in 2011. Yet one would never know that from looking at their journal. It is still used in mold litigations. Dr. Portnoy has stated under oath that he did not contribute to this paper after Dr. Saxon rewrote his work. Email communications establish that Dr. Portnoy was not even aware it had been published in 2006, until I told him; and that he does not agree with its findings]

4. Please cause Dr. Andrew Saxon of UCLA (retired) to cease misusing the UC unofficial seal when writing dishonest reports as an expert defense witness in mold litigations.

I am requesting that you schedule this matter to be addressed by HSC vote at the August 2019 HSC meeting; and that you allow me to make a presentation to you corroborating why it is in the public’s best interest that HSC cause the UC name and other assets to cease being used to commit insurer fraud and horrific discrimination in the mold issue, nationwide. (Attached hereto as EXH 5 is a March 2019 article about me from Health Impact News. It describes why and how I know so much about this deeply seated fraud and the harm it continues to cause the public)

Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

Sincerely,

Sharon Noonan Kramer

I delivered these comments of others who are adversely impacted by the scientific fraud with the UC name on it, attached to my Agenda Item Request for 8/13/19.

To my surprise, representatives of #ME Action Network & Solve ME/CFS Initiative were seeking HSC help on the same day. I am concerned and dismayed that they are not aware of this deep-seated fraud in healthcare which impedes acknowledgment of the severity of the disabling illnesses of those for whom the advocate.

See video of the ME/CFS advocates’ pleas for UC Regent help to properly educate physicians, as they articulate the mass discrimination/medical mistreatment problem; and the broad efforts being made to change it (without understanding that what they are really trying to change is intentional discrimination and bias against their loved ones for profit).

Thousands of people, including federal legislators from California, know of the scientific fraud with the UC name all over it. They know of the corruption in California’s courts purposed to hide it is a fraud and enable it to continue to cause discrimination of the environmentally disabled and dying.

Vice, 4/14/15 “The Surprisingly Fierce Battle Over a Scientific Paper About Mold“

WorkCompCentral 3/9/15 “ACOEM Takes Down Position Paper Commonly Used to Defend Against Mold Claims”

It disturbs me to no end that no one is apparently telling the ME/CFS community, so they could understand that what they are fighting to change is not just lack of proper physician education & lack of research.  It’s a  massive fraud based on junk science in the mold issue. It is used to cause lack-of-belief, bias and discrimination of all with ME/CFS — whether they’ve been impacted by mold or not.

On a more positive note.

Most people do not know that Senator Dianne Feinstein’s husband, Richard Blum, is one of ten voting Regents of HSC. Another is Gavin Newsom, California’s Governor.  And still another, Janet Napolitano, is former head of US Homeland Security. Sherry Lancing is the former CEO of Paramount Pictures.

HSC is a important committee in the UC system and in shaping policies across the US.  They have a tremendous amount of influence and political clout, nationwide.

They also have large amounts of complex matters which they are charged to oversee. As a result, sometimes it is hard to get the Regents to focus on what little individual members of the public have to say.

I watched HSC Chair Lancing’s face as the ME/CFS ladies spoke.  I think she heard them as they explained what a massive and devastating issue that ME/CFS really is.

Whether HSC will calendar in August and vote to stop the UC name from being misused to promote the false concept that these illnesses are just figments of people’s imagination, remains to be seen.  Still, the ME ladies did an awesome job!

UPDATE:

I received a response letter dated June 18, 2019 from John Stobo, MD. It states,

We have heard your concerns and they have been referred to the appropriate campus.  However, due to time constraints, we are not able to place this item on the regent’s health services agenda. You certainly have the opportunity to address your concerns during the public comment session of the regent’s meeting.

Doctor Stobo is the executive vice president of UC Health, who joined UC in October 2008. In this role he is responsible for systemwide coordination and communication among UC’s health sciences schools and medical centers (collectively referred to as UC Health). He is responsible for policy development for UC’s health system, and develops mechanisms for monitoring performance for the system’s 17 health sciences schools and 10 hospitals on seven campuses. He also oversees strategic planning and advocacy efforts as well as the development of systemwide initiatives for UC Health.

Dr. Stobo has held leadership positions in a wide variety of national professional organizations, including the American Association of Professors of Medicine, the American College of Rheumatology, the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, where he was also a member of the IOM Council. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the California Healthcare Institute (CHI). Stobo was one of the five inaugural members inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society. In 1996, Stobo received a mastership from the American College of Physicians for his distinguished contributions to internal medicine.

He must have misunderstood why I turned to the UC Regents for help.  As I stated on June 11, 2019 I did not make two trips to LA just to tell them there is a problem; nor would it help solve the problem for me just to go tell them there is a problem, again.  (see video).  I asked that they calendar and vote to protect the UC name from being misused to promote FRAUD that is devastating our troops’, their families, and thousands of others across the US.

Left unaddressed by the HSC Regents, the problem is posing a national security threat.  Troops are leaving the military and others are not signing up to join. They do not want their families to be disabled by moldy military housing; with the gov’t shielding the PPV landlords from liability by promoting the false concept (with the UC name all over it) that the moldy buildings can’t cause the disabling illnesses that the families report.

ATTN Military Moms!!! If so inclined, please send a brief (and polite) email to Congressman Giramendi’s office TODAY telling the Arms Services Readiness Committee how your family is being hurt by the military doctors being misinformed of the true illnesses caused by the moldy military housing.  What is their recovery plan from this?

Betsy.Thompson@mail.house.gov (See below for the fax that they and the Navy Health Dept received this morning)

“If I have the time, I am going to blog this fax later on today so the military mothers and others may also see it. If I get it up on the Net, maybe some of the military mothers will contact you all to explain how they and their families are being harmed by the medico-legal fraud in the matter, as much as the mold exposure itself.”

Sharon Noonan Kramer
2031 Arborwood Place
Escondido, CA 92029
760-822-8206

April 3, 2019

Daniel Naske & Betsy Thompson
Legislative Assistants to
The Honorable John Giramendi
by Fax (202) 225-5914

RE: Please address the scientific fraud on the medico-legal side of the moldy military housing matter in the Department of Defense’s “Guide for Clinicians Caring for Patients with Mold-related Complaints”.

Dear Mr. Naske and Ms. Thompson,

I sent you an email yesterday and am following up with a fax today. I am gravely concerned for the safety of our military families and the readiness of our troops. Please ask Congressman Giramendi to take action to protect them from a deeply seated insurer fraud scam based on junk science that is written into policies and physician educational materials.

Our troops and their families are experiencing adverse symptoms from the water damaged building (WDB) exposures which go far beyond the respiratory tract. Some of them are experiencing symptoms that are indicative of toxicological exposures, including brain injuries/cognitive dysfunction.

It is extremely dangerous to have troops with brain injuries out in the field trying to defend our country. It is even more dangerous for the military physicians to be trained to not tell the troops what is causing their symptoms; and instead feed them useless anti-depressants, which can have severe side effects on their own.

Brain injury from WDB exposures was proven by jury verdict in the matter of Federico v. Lincoln Military Housing, Civil No. 2:12cv80 United States District Court, E.D. Virginia, Norfolk Division. The husband, Joe Federico, was severely impacted with the cognitive dysfunction and “retired” from the military.

To quote from one article re: the Federico verdict,

“On April 4, 2016, NeuroQuant® and NeuroGage® were admitted as evidence by Judge Raymond A. Jackson in a Federal court case in Norfolk, VA (Federico, et al. v. Lincoln Military Housing, LLD, et al.) despite the objections of defense counsel. This was the first time these brain volume measurement tools were admitted in Federal court. David E. Ross, M.D., neuropsychiatrist, testified on the neuropsychiatric aspects of mold-related illness which had affected the Federicos, including the NeuroQuant® and NeuroGage® MRI brain volume measurements. The results showed a combined pattern of brain enlargement/atrophy similar to that found in two pioneering studies published by Ritchie Shoemaker, M.D. and colleagues. The jury found in favor of the plaintiffs. Dr. Shoemaker has hypothesized that the brain enlargement/atrophy is caused by chronic neuroinflammation. This idea is supported by his finding that clinical treatment leads to normalization of brain volume. In court, positive rulings are important because they set a positive precedent, which means that judges in future cases will be more likely to admit these types of results than if there had been previous negative rulings.”

Many other military families are reporting the same to their peers. By and large, they are afraid to speak of it for fear they will be retaliated against, instead of helped. The military physicians are being trained to believe that the brain injuries (and other symptoms beyond the respiratory tract) are not able to be caused by WDB exposures. This is greatly adding to the justified fears of retaliation that the military families experience.

THE ROOT OF THE DEEPLY SEATED PROBLEM:

There is one bogus toxicological risk assessment model that was concocted by the dishonest toxicologists at Veritox, Inc. in 2002, which is fraudulently used as alleged proof in court that the microbial toxins in WDBs cannot reach a level to cause brain injuries. (EXH 1 the “Veritox Theory” ) Veritox owners serve as expert defense witnesses in moldy military housing cases when assisting the PPV landlords and their insurers to avoid liability for causation of disabilities and deaths. (EXH 2, relevant pages of the “expert opinion” of Veritox president, Bruce J. Kelman, in Mitchell v. the United States, 2006).

There are four active papers in the “fleet of deceit” which sail the Veritox Theory across the United States with the University of California flag proudly waving. They are:

1. 2002 nonprofit American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) “Adverse Human Health Effects Associated with Molds in the Indoor Environment” by Bruce J. Kelman & Bryan Hardin of Veritox, Inc. and Andrew Saxon of UCLA. Published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (JOEM)

2. 2003 nonprofit U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) & nonprofit Manhattan Institute Center for Legal Policy (CLP) “A Scientific View of the Health Effects of Mold”. Stated authorship: Bruce J. Kelman, Bryan Hardin, Coreen Robbins of Veritox, Inc. and Andrew Saxon of UCLA.

3. 2006 nonprofit American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) [26] “The Medical Effects of Mold Exposure”. Stated authorship: Andrew Saxon of UCLA, Robert Bush of University of Wisconsin, Abba I. Terr of Stanford University, Robert Wood of Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Jay Portnoy of Children’s Mercy Hospital of Kansas City Published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI) [Dr. Portnoy has claimed under oath that he did not contribute to this paper after Dr. Saxon rewrote his work]

4. 2006 nonprofit American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT) “Institute of Medicine Report on Damp Indoor Spaces and Health” by Daniel Sudakin of Veritox, Inc. and Thomas Kurt (This paper is a dishonest critique of the 2004 IOM Damp Indoor Spaces & Health Report’s toxicity section. It is a rehash of the above three papers. Drs. Sudakin & Kurt are expert defense witnesses in mold litigations as are other ACMT members. CDC ATSDR funds ACMT to disseminate information for “nonprofit” medical associations)

5. 2005, the disabled ship: California Department of Health and Industrial Relations Board policies “Mold in the Indoor Work Places”. This paper was endorsed into California public health policies by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in October of 2005.

On its fourth page it used to state, “Physicians can refer to the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) Adverse Human Health Effects Associated with Molds in the Indoor Environment”. Sometime after January 1, 2016, that sentence was quietly removed from the California Department of Health advisories to physicians without dating the change – making it falsely appear that the State of California never endorsed the junk science into physician [advisories] aiding with flawed insurer claims handling practices, including but not limited to, workers’ compensation claims.

(See EXH 3 ) Wall Street Journal, Jan 2007, “Amid Suits Over Mold Experts Wear Two Hats, Authors of Science Papers Also Serve For Defense in Mold Litigations” This article explains much of how the bogus Veritox Theory made its way into physician educational materials for the purpose of cheating disabled people in mold litigations.

On March 14, 2019 the Navy and Marine Corps Health Department put out a Clinician Guideline of how to (mis)treat the military families. (EXH 4 ). They cited to the litigation defense argument, AAAAI Mold Statement, for reference. The Clinician Guideline is horrible. It strongly appears to have been written by NGO contractors who are the expert defense witnesses in mold litigations. One email sent of March 28, 2019 explaining (some of) the problem, and the Navy graciously withdrew their misguided Clinician Guideline on March 29, 2019 (EXH 5 ).

As the former California Insurance Commissioner (2003 through 2007) when the “fleet of deceit” was being created (Oct 2002-2007), I am aware that Congressman Giramandi has much experience with the mold issue. I know that he understands how bogus science is sometimes concocted and legitimized by medical journal and other publications to support dishonest expert witnessing that is used by insurers (and others) to avoid liability for their insureds’ negligent acts causing harm.

PLEASE HELP! It is an urgent matter at this juncture in time. You all can write all the laws you want on the Hill with the intent of causing the DOD to provide better oversight of the PPV landlords. It will not make one bit of difference if the DOD is also putting out greatly flawed clinician guidelines which assist the landlords and insurers to avoid liability for causation of disabilities and deaths — based on falsely stated “current accepted science”.

Tomorrow, you all have the representatives of the DOD, Navy, Army, and Air Force available for direct questioning and comment. Please address the need for the DOD to develop accurate clinician guidelines re: the illnesses caused by the moldy military housing based on true current accepted science (not based on litigation defense arguments).

Should it really be this hard to get the United States government to admit they messed up by promoting the false concept that its proven thousands of people are lying about being disabled by WDBs – by promoting the false findings of dishonest expert defense witnesses who added math to data they took from one rat study?

Thank you,
Sharon Kramer
(advocate for integrity in health marketing)

(EXH 6 Part I & Part II About me). This is the true story written by a gentleman with a masters in public health, 3/19, John Thomas. It tells (some of) the shear Hell that the judges and justices in the military town of San Diego, continue to criminally run me through on behalf of the owners of Veritox, Inc. and their clients (and on behalf of the University of California) – for my exposing this epic and deadly marketing scam fourteen years ago. The California judges’ oversight agency, the Commission on Judicial Performance, is currently being audited. I helped to cause the direly needed audit.

P.S. If I have the time, I am going to blog this fax later on today so the military mothers and others may also see it. If I get it up on the Net, maybe some of the military mothers will contact you all to explain how they and their families are being harmed by the medico-legal fraud in the matter, as much as the mold exposure itself. If I get it on the Net, one may read it at Katy’s Exposure under the blog title of “4/3/19 Request for Arms Services/Readiness Oversight of Medico-Legal Matters in the Moldy Military Housing Debacle”.

FC:
Paul Gillooly, Ph.D., CAPT, MSC, USN Ret
Environmental Programs
Navy & Marine Corps Public Health Center
FAX:(757) 953-0675