March 16, 2017
Recently a newspaper article stated, “Researchers for HCVets.com, an online support group for vets with hepatitis C, found more than 100 successful appeals of regional decisions between 1992 and 2014 that didn’t [sic.] entertain jet guns as a causative factor for a vet’s hepatitis.”
The reality is HCVets DIDN’T conduct any such research because I did. This nefarious attempt by Patricia Lupole to hijack my research stems from hostility after I stopped collaborating with her group last summer. HCVets has no legal right to this research.
Just because I collaborated with HCVets from September of 2015 to August of 2016 does not give HCVets the rights to my intellectual property. Never did I sign any agreement stating that my creative ideas were the property of HCVets and no such agreement was ever mentioned. Just because I used my own research in speaking with VA headquarters does not give HCVets any legal rights to this research, especially since the research was disseminated in early 2015 under the name Jet Infectors.
This is further substantiated by the screenshot image below which shows the info for the file concerning this article. In the photo you will see the filename of the document, “Jet Infectors – study info,” was created on March 22 of 2015 and last modified on August 8th of 2015. The bottom half of the photo captures an image of the first page of the document with the title, Jet Infectors: A Twenty-One Year Assessment of the Nexuses Between Jet Injectors and Blood-Borne Pathogens Via Veteran Affairs Court Cases.
In January of 2016 I updated my article on BVA appeals, and published the update on my website on February 1 of 2016, as evidenced here on web.archive.org (a website that after a url is uploaded it is forever imprinted, as it appeared on that specific date, in its database). Scroll down to the Table of Contents and you will see on February 1 of 2016, I published the article titled, Military Jet Gun Injections Transmitted Hepatitis: a 22-year assessment of VA claims.
If you click on the article or access it here, you will see the Copyright Notice at the bottom of the article which clearly states, “© Shaun Brown and Jet Infectors, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Shaun Brown and Jet Infectors with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.”
Sometime thereafter in February of 2016, Tricia Lupole posted my article on her website as evidenced here, to which she includes the URL to my article, my contact information at jetinfectors@gmail.com, and the Copyright Notice at the end of the article. She accurately cited my work.
On February 16 of 2016, Tricia Lupole posted my article on HCVets Facebook page, where she appropriately credits my website. “From the Blog Jet Infectors.”
The fact that Tricia repeatedly and appropriately cited my article in 2016 unravels her preposterous claim in February of 2017 that I did the research for HCVets or that she has a legal right to my research.
Lastly, I feel the need to clarify Tricia’s repeated assertion that I worked for her as a Legislative Coordinator. In a fictional world of make believe Tricia is the Executive Director of HCVets. However, in reality this is nothing more than a puffed-up assertion to make HCVets seem grandeur than reality. I never worked for HCVets. I was never hired or paid for my work. HCVets is nothing more than a group of veterans and their family members working hard at obtaining justice, which is in itself respectable. The group does not need to puff itself up. I am certainly not a Legislative Coordinator. I am purely, simply, and always will be the son of a veteran who advocated on behalf of his father and on behalf of veterans…nothing more, nothing less.
Following my post, more lies have emerged from the mouth of Tricia Lupole that are not backed by any evidence.
In recent post, she purported: “The Information formally on this page was provided to HCVets.com on Aug. 8, 2015 with the consent of Shaun Brown.” However, the following email demonstrates I was not in contact with HCVets until August 25 of 2015.
Or her claim that multiple-use nozzle jet injectors were used until 2006 after the DoD had already banned the devices in 1998. Yet there is absolutely no evidence to support this claim. An extensive review of various documents, photographs, and videos has yet to demonstrate the use of MUNJI devices between 1998 and 2006. During the discontinuation of MUNJI devices, officials requested to use a disposable-cartridge jet injector. DCJIs have a single-use disposable cartridge which house the drug reservoir, nozzle, and plunger. Once used the cartridge is discarded. DCJIs eliminate the risk of cross-contamination. Numerous documents, videos, and photographs have demonstrated the use of a DCJI known as the Biojector 2000 within the Armed Forces during this time.
Unlike Tricia Lupole, I can back everything I say with evidence.
