Chicago Tribune (CT) - FRIDAY, January 6, 1995 Edition: NORTH SPORTS FINAL Section: EDITORIAL Page: 22 Word Count: 621

Nor, it now turns out, was Gallo the first to invent the AIDS test or show the virus was the cause of AIDS. A just-completed congressional investigation reports that the accomplishments occurred in France.And yet, each time investigators have uncovered evidence demonstrating the invalidity of Gallo's claims, government officials have squelched the information. Virtually from the start, the federal government's intent in investigating the Gallo affair has been not to arrive at the truth, but to protect one of its top scientists and its claim to the AIDS-test patent. It was a classic cover-up, the full extent of which is just coming to light through a three-year investigation completed by a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

"One of the most remarkable and regrettable aspects of the institutional response to the defense of Gallo et al is how readily public service and science apparently were subverted into defending the indefensible," reads a subcommittee draft report, which was revealed in the Tribune. "The fraud became self-perpetuating. Defending the indefensible became a reflex, until ultimately, the cover-up was so burdened with falsehoods that its collapse was inevitable."

The subcommittee's investigation is the first unfiltered government evaluation of the Gallo case and the government's complicity in hiding the scientific improprieties that took place. But the report may never be released. The investigation was started under Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), who has just lost the chairmanships of the Energy and Commerce Committee and its investigation subcommittee.

Republicans rule the roost under a newly created House Commerce Committee, and they have their own partisan priorities. But the reputation of U.S. scientific research, and the full accounting of the Gallo case, cannot be a partisan issue.

The release of the report rests with Rep. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), chairman of the Commerce Committee, and Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the investigation subcommittee. They must review the report and approve its public release. When they examine the report, they will find some fascinating reading.

In 1987, the U.S. and France announced a settlement of the dispute over which nation's scientists had invented the AIDS blood test. The agreement said that both groups had succeeded independently in isolating the virus that led to development of the test, and that royalties would be split.

Days later, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist sent a written warning to senior officials at the National Institutes of Health that a "double fraud" had been committed. The scientist, who compared genetic codes, found that Gallo's account of how he isolated the virus independently couldn't be true.

But NIH officials buried the scientist's memo, and it stayed under wraps until it was discovered by the House subcommittee. In the course of subsequent investigations, officials made persistent efforts to hide the facts of the case. Federal agencies "did not seek the truth, but rather sought to create an official record to support the claims of Gallo," the report says.

Bliley and Barton may be tempted to hold the report, since most of the coverup took place during the Reagan administration. There's little to gain by that-the unofficial draft is already being widely circulated. But official release would be an acknowledgement of the sins of the past, and a step toward restoring the integrity of federally sponsored science.

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