- Victoria Wells Wulsin
-
Victoria Wells Wulsin, 2006
Victoria Elizabeth Wells Wulsin, M.D., D.P.H. (born October 27, 1953) is a physician and three-time Democratic congressional candidate in the Second District of Ohio (map). She is a resident of Indian Hill, an affluent suburb of Cincinnati.
Contents
Early life and career
Wulsin was born in Elyria, Ohio, the daughter of a teacher and a social worker. She attended high school in Ohio and completed her undergraduate coursework at Harvard University.[1] After college, she returned to Ohio and earned a medical degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland (1980). She received her masters in Public Health (1982) and her doctorate in Epidemiology (1985), both from the Harvard University School of Public Health.[2] Wulsin has obtained medical licenses in Massachusetts (1981) and Ohio (1989). From 1989-1995, she was Director of Epidemiology in the City of Cincinnati's Health Department. From 1986-2001, she worked in various capacities for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her husband, Dr. Lawson Reed Wulsin, is a psychiatrist on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati, and they have four sons: Wells, Reed, Stuart and John,.[3]
In April 2003, Wulsin founded SOTENI International,[4] a non-profit organization to fight AIDS in Africa, which has its headquarters in Cincinnati and an office in Kenya. SOTENI uplifts women and orphans who were most affected by the AIDS pandemic.[5] Soteni is a Swahili word which translates as "all of us".[6] On 26th January 2011 during the award of charter to the Mount Kenya University in Thika, she was installed as its first Chancellor.
Politics
2005 special election for Congress
Main article: Ohio 2nd congressional district election, 2005Wulsin was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Congress to replace Rob Portman in the Second District of Ohio in the special primary held June 14, 2005. In the Democratic primary, Wulsin campaigned to reform health care to provide every citizen with coverage, promised to protect Social Security and the environment, said the Iraq War "has not been worth the cost of American service personnel or the dollars we have spent", and said America needed "fair trade" in the proposed CAFTA agreement. She also defended contraception, legal abortion and reproductive rights.[citation needed]
In the primary election, Wulsin finished second behind Paul Hackett. She received 3,800 votes (27.35%).
2006 election for Congress
Main article: Ohio 2nd congressional district election, 2006In 2006, Wulsin sought the Democratic nomination again. With Paul Hackett having announced he would not run again, she faced health care administrator James John Parker and civil engineer Jeff Sinnard, who both ran in 2005, and newcomers Gabrielle Downey, a high school teacher, and Thor Jacobs, a building contractor. Wulsin won the May 2 primary by nearly 15 percentage points and received the Democratic nomination for the 2nd District. She faced Rep. Jean Schmidt (R) in the November 2006 general election and was defeated by only 2,517 votes out almost 240,000 votes cast.[7] This is the closest that a Democrat has come to winning a full term in the heavily Republican 2nd District in 42 years; the last Democrat to win this district for a full term was future Governor Jack Gilligan, who held it for one term after being swept into office by the massive Democratic landslide of 1964.
Wulsin carried Pike County and Scioto County by wide margins and narrowly carried Brown County. She also defeated Schmidt in the 2nd's share of Hamilton County, by far the largest portion of the district; Schmidt had won Hamilton County during her special election victory against Hackett. However, Schmidt carried her home in Clermont County by over 8,000 votes, enabling her to keep the seat.
2006 Polls
Source Date Wulsin (D) Schmidt (R) Undecided Margin of error SurveyUSA November 1, 2006 48% 45% 7% -/+ 4 SurveyUSA October 17, 2006 40% 48% 12% -/+ 4 Majority Watch[8] October 10, 2006 48% 45% 6% -/+ 3 SurveyUSA September 21, 2006 42% 45% 12% -/+ 4 Momentum Analysis June 2006 44% 44% 11% -/+ 4 2008 election for Congress
In the 2008 election cycle Wulsin ran as the Democratic candidate for the Second District of Ohio for a third time. She defeated Cincinnati attorney Steve Black by 28 points in the March 4 primary.
In the general election, Wulsin faced two opponents, Republican incumbent Jean Schmidt and independent candidate David Krikorian. Polls showed the race to be close between Wulsin and Schmidt, with Krikorian attracting a significant amount of support for an independent candidate.
The three candidates engaged in three debates. The first took place at the Anderson Community Center on October 6, 2008, the second was aired on WCET on October 22, and the third was aired on Channel 12’s Newsmakers program on October 26. All three debates focused mainly on the economy, the financial crisis, and local issues.
On November 4, Representative Schmidt defeated Wulsin in the general election.
Malariotherapy controversy
Wulsin has stated that in 2004 she was hired by Cincinnati's Heimlich Institute to conduct a literature review on "malariotherapy", a controversial AIDS treatment which consists of infecting HIV+ patients with malaria. Wulsin produced a report for the Heimlich Institute entitled "Immunotherapy and Beyond",[9] which included suggestions for proceeding with the Heimlich Institute's ongoing "malariotherapy" experiments in Africa, but also concluded that the treatment found a "consistent pattern of increasing disapproval over time" and that "the preponderance of evidence indicates that neither malaria nor Immunotherapy will cure HIV/AIDS".
A "Wulsin for Congress" statement includes, In the course of her work, (Dr. Wulsin) was given a single page of data from an experiment taking place in Africa ... Dr. Wulsin's contract with the Heimlich Institute was terminated the day after her draft report was submitted for review by the Institute's board and the board of the parent Deaconess Foundation.[10] Dr. Wulsin's report is dated December 2004.[9] However, according to the January 21, 2005 Cincinnati Business Courier, "Last February, she was hired by the Heimlich Institute to do a four-month literature review of malariotherapy."[11]
A request for an investigation of Wulsin's work for the Heimlich Institute was filed with the State Medical Board of Ohio on Nov. 3, 2006 by Dr. Robert S. Baratz of the National Council Against Health Fraud. The complaint accused Wulsin of "participation in unsupervised, unapproved, and dangerous experiments."[12] An April 28, 2008 letter from the State Medical Board stated that "no further action was required by the board and the complaint has been closed."[13]
Steve Black, Dr. Wulsin's opponent in the Spring 2008 Democratic primary, made the matter a campaign issue via mailers[14] and a TV ad.[15] A June 8, 2008 "Jean Schmidt for Congress" fundraising letter stated, Wulsin's contempt for the culture of life has even led her to participate in grotesque medical experiments. Wulsin was paid for her work in medical "studies" where victims of AIDS in Africa and China were, without their consent, injected with the malaria virus, all in the name of "scientific inquiry".[13][16] Mr. Black later endorsed Wulsin: "During the primary election campaign, I raised the issue of a medical ethics complaint filed against Dr. Wulsin. Now that the Ohio State Medical Board has found no merit in that complaint, I hope we can all put this issue behind us".[17]
See also
References
- ^ "Vic Wulsin For Congress - Bio, May 25, 2008". http://www.wulsinforcongress.com/aboutvic2.htm.
- ^ "Curriculum Vitae, March 31, 2003". http://www.scribd.com/doc/2083829/Victoria-Wells-Wulsin-MD-DrPH-curriculum-vitae-March-31-2003.
- ^ "Department of Psychiatry at UC, May 25, 2008". http://www.psychiatry.uc.edu/index.php?q=node/100.
- ^ SOTENI International[dead link]
- ^ History, SOTENI International
- ^ "soteni", kamusiproject.org
- ^ 2006 Election results, Ohio State.
- ^ "District 2 Poll". Majority Watch. October 10, 2006. http://constituentdynamics.com/mw/2006/index2.php.
- ^ a b "Immunotherapy and Beyond", Report by Wulsin.
- ^ http://www.flickr.com/photos/65091770@N00/2348009897/sizes/o/
- ^ Cincinnati Business Courier
- ^ Complaint against Ohio medical license of Dr Victoria Wulsin
- ^ a b Rhee, Joseph (2008-07-03). "Democratic Congressional Candidate's Ties to Bizarre AIDS Research". ABC news. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=5301370.
- ^ "Steve Black for Congress" campaign mailer
- ^ TV ad
- ^ "Schmidt for Congress" fundraising letter
- ^ Wulsin primary opponent Black endorses her
External links
- Victoria Wulsin for Congress official campaign site
Categories:- 1953 births
- American physicians
- Living people
- People from Elyria, Ohio
- Harvard University alumni
- Radcliffe College alumni
- Case Western Reserve University alumni
- Indian Hill, Ohio
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
