Healthy Skepticism Library item: 19703

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Lee SS
The power of one and saving private Braillon
Liver International 2011;
braillon.net/alain/liv2723.pdf

Abstract:

“Be of good cheer, Master Ridley. We shall this day light such a candle,
by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out!” – Hugh Latimer to his friend Nicholas Ridley as they
were about to be burned for heresy, Oxford, 1555
2011 has certainly been a tumultuous year in the world. Who
could have predicted at the beginning of the year that a single
brave but irreversible act of protest by a disenfranchised and desperate
young man in Tunisia, Mohamed Abouazizi, would trigger
a chain of events that would lead to the overthrow of longstanding
despotic regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and foment mass
protests in a host of other countries in the region. This so-called
“Arab Spring” was clearly ignited by the tragic self-immolation of
that one individual, and it is likely that the ‘domino effect’ has yet
to end: several other autocratic regimes in that (or other) part(s)
of the world may also see their final days in the months to come.
This is all the more astonishing because the Arab Spring is
occurring in a region of the world where autocratic rule has
attempted to block or diminish the rights and power of the individual.
In such countries, the only individuals with the power to
effect change are those oligarchs who reign as the heads of governments
or royal families.
Outside of the Middle East, in the realms of government, business
and healthcare, the power of one person to make a difference
has recently been highlighted by so-called ‘whistleblowers’. Corrupt
business practices and an entire huge corporation at the
former Enron Corporation were brought down by a single whistleblower
who first alerted authorities to the wrongdoing. Whistleblowers
are now seen as crucial persons who raise the alert when
the leaders of organizations and governments engage in wrongdoing.
In such an atmosphere, raising the initial alert is potentially a
career-limiting or even career-ending move. Thus several governments
have passed legislation protecting whistleblowers.
Unfortunately even with such legislation, whistleblowers can
suffer severe deleterious consequences as a result of their actions.
In the healthcare field, a recent egregious example of whistleblowers
being punished for their actions has occurred.
In France, two public health officials, both physicians, have
been subjected to harsh retribution for speaking out on health
issues. Dr. Alan Braillon (rhymes with ‘Ryan’) has been sacked
by the regional hospital board of Amiens. Subsequently his firing
was upheld by the National Management Centre (equivalent to
the Department of Health), despite the fact that 70% of the
health officials voted against his dismissal. He was not given the
opportunity to be present nor to defend himself at this appeal
meeting. Normally, the recommendation by vote of his peers
would be adopted, but in his case, the National Management
Centre decided that they must be rid of his outspoken views.
Braillon has published or spoken publicly on several topics
including hepatitis vaccination policy (1), the power of the
tobacco lobby (2) and the need to ban benfluorex in France
(details in http://braillon.net/alain/). This last drug, a derivative
of fenfluoramine which was banned in 1997 in the USA and
elsewhere due to heart valvular problems, was only banned in
France in 2009.
His boss, Professor Ge´rard Dubois, is being sued for libel by
the French tobacconist’s union for saying during a television
interview that tobacco had killed two persons for every tobacconist
in France.
Braillon’s sacking and the libel suit against Prof. Dubois
speaks sadly about the apparent gagging of outspoken physicians
and failure to protect whistleblowers in France. I suspect that
France is not unique amongst so-called “democratic” countries
in trying to stifle unpopular or inconvenient views.
The reader may ask why the above is relevant to the world of
hepatology. The answer is both direct and indirect. The direct
answer is that Dr. Braillon is or was one of us, a hepatologist.
For two decades starting in the early 1980’s, while working with
Didier Lebrec, he produced many important papers that
advanced our knowledge of cardiovascular complications of cirrhosis
(3,4). In the mid-1990s he eventually settled into a career
in public health.
The indirect and more important reason is that we as part of
the global medical/scientific community must always strive to
support and protect those individuals amongst us who risk their
careers, and in some cases even their lives, to beneficially change
the world, either by direct actions or by drawing attention to
wrongdoing.
Individuals should be encouraged to act against injustice, or
at least speak out against it. In the global community (the electronic
‘global village’ that Marshall McLuhan so presciently predicted
five decades ago), the power of the internet or the
‘blogosphere’ can be harnessed to help individuals who try to
change the world. To start the new year by such a small gesture,
please log on to Braillon’s website and email your support. Let’s
make 2012 the Year of the Individual.
Dedication
This editorial is dedicated to the memory of Mohamed Abouazizi.
Samuel S. Lee
Editor-in-chief
Liver International