University of Utah Ordered to Pay Additional $216K To Whistleblower Dr. Judith Zimmerman
We shared the news about the original award last August. Former Autism Researcher Prevails on Whistleblower Claim Against University of Utah Ms. Zimmerman has won an additional award.
Written by Nate Carlisle, The Salt Lake City (Utah) News
A federal judge has ordered the University of Utah to pay another $216,798 to an autism researcher who says her superiors retaliated against her.
The amount is in addition to what a jury awarded Judith Zimmerman in August — $119,640 for lost wages. The U. also must pay $10,080 in court and deposition costs.
“The University is disappointed in this decision,” said Kathy Wilets, a spokeswoman for University of Utah Healthcare, “and is seeking advice from the Attorney General’s office regarding an appeal.”
Zimmerman’s attorney, April Hollingsworth, said her client feels vindicated by the awards.
“They took away her livelihood and her reputation,” Hollingsworth said Tuesday, “and really what else could she do but fight it?”
Zimmerman was a speech language pathologist who in 2005 accepted a faculty position and was named director of the database known as the Utah Registry of Autism and Developmental Disabilities. In 2012, she became concerned that researchers were accessing the data without authorization, perhaps violating patients’ privacy and exposing them to unwanted attention from schools and employers. Read more here at the Salt Lake City Tribune
Thank you Bob!
Thank you Pogo. Come to think of it Mg. for my family is a problem too. Leg aches and all.
Posted by: Benedetta | May 02, 2019 at 11:11 PM
I like the example Chiou & Tucker gave in Figure 1: Screenshot of Advertising of Fake News on Facebook.
Now everyone will be googling http://bit.ly/2o0b5Cp
No different from Pharmaceutical advertising really.
As Chiou & Tucker like counting likes, here is a few more of them to count.
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍,👍👍👍👍👍👍:👍👍👍👍👍👍
@Benedetta
You’ve got me thinking.
This come comes from the fourth paragraph after table 3 of a very long paper which I do not expected you to read.
“As a Class A (Hard) cation, the chemistry of Al3+ resembles that of Mg2+, Ca2+, Na+ and K+. In fact, it may be viewed as a super Ca2+ or Mg2+ ion (Nieboer et al., 1999; Nieboer & Richardson, 1980), thereby often inhibiting the biological roles of these essential divalent cations, for example on the surface tissues of fish gills (Reid et al., 1991; Wilkinson et al., 1993).”
HUMAN HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT FOR ALUMINIUM, ALUMINIUM OXIDE, AND ALUMINIUM HYDROXIDE
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2782734/
So Al compounds may be responsible for this disease as well.
Posted by: Pogo | May 01, 2019 at 01:22 PM
@ Bennedetta
"I thought it had something to do with CDC counting of autism cases in Utah?
I agree and confused what actually happened here? Apparently the court dismissed 10 of her original claims and found in her favor regarding lost wages and court costs. What were the other 10 allegations the court dismissed;
"Zimmerman was a speech language pathologist who in 2005 accepted a faculty position and was named director of the database known as the Utah Registry of Autism and Developmental Disabilities. In 2012, she became concerned that researchers were accessing the data without authorization, perhaps violating patients’ privacy and exposing them to unwanted attention from schools and employers."
Apparently Zimmerman found a "1200% increase in girls in Utah between 2002 and 2008 .. researchers also say the spike in autism in Utah was NOT attributed to over diagnosis or different definition of autism"
Were those two findings by Zimmerman the reason she lost her job? If so .. THAT WOULD BE WORTH KNOWING.
Posted by: Bob Moffit | May 01, 2019 at 12:59 PM
I thought it was about her finding in the data base fraud and data changing to make it look like there was a reduction in the autism spike in Utah?
I thought it had something to do with CDC counting of autism cases in Utah?
She won some money for basically just lose of wages, and for people looking into a data base and overstepping HIPPA privacy issues.
HIPPA; I am sure was put in place to be able to hide such horrendous, medical crimes more than people's privacy. Clever.
Posted by: Benedetta | May 01, 2019 at 09:50 AM
Unbelievable.
Good for Zimmerman!
Posted by: Full Spectrum Mama | May 01, 2019 at 09:00 AM