The Federation of American Scientists is profoundly disturbed by the testimony of former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona at the July 10th hearing of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. At the hearing, Surgeon General Carmona described a dismaying number of cases where he was forced to weaken or suppress reports providing public health information that should have been available to the public. He also reported that he was repeatedly instructed not to speak on a wide array of important health issues including stem cells, emergency contraception, and mental health.
While political pressure on government scientists is not new, the size and scope of the effort reported by Dr. Carmona are shocking. This is the first time an official of this rank has described in detail a persistent, long-term pattern of distorting science advice to the public. As America’s “chief health educator,” the Surgeon General’s office has a clear obligation to provide the public with timely, accurate, and accessible information about matters of health and medicine. The public needs this information to provide good care for themselves and their families and they need it to make informed decisions about health care policy. The public should never have to wonder whether statements made by high public officials can be trusted to be accurate and complete.
Dr. James Holsinger, nominated to be the next Surgeon General, will face Senate confirmation this week. FAS urges the Senators examining him to get assurances that he will always provide the public with the most complete, timely, and accurate health care information available to him. And we urge them to get assurances that he will bring important health care matters to public attention without regard to the effect these facts will have on partisan political debates.
Read Surgeon General Carmona’s testimony here.
FAS Note: The link to the testimony above does not includeSurgeon General Carmona's answers to questions from Senators. Below are some key quotes from Carmona’s testimony. It is in this back-and-forth that he is quite direct about there being political manipulation.
On Political interference:
"Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is often ignored, marginalized or simply buried,"
"The problem with this approach is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds."
"The vetting was done by political appointees who were specifically there to be able to spin, if you will, my words in such a way that would be preferable to a political or an ideologically preconceived notion that had nothing to do with science. . . .
"I recall during my tenure that from time to time we would receive invitations, sometimes they were called 'mandatory meetings' of quote, unquote political appointees. . . . I went to a couple of those initially, but I recall early on that I recognized that these were really more political pep rallies. . . .
On stem cells:
"Much of the discussion was being driven by theology, ideology, [and] preconceived beliefs that were scientifically incorrect,"
"I thought, 'This is a perfect example of the surgeon general being able to step forward, educate the American public.' . . . I was blocked at every turn. I was told the decision had already been made -- 'Stand down. Don't talk about it.' That information was removed from my speeches."
On abstinence only education:
"There was already a policy in place that did not want to hear the science but wanted to just preach abstinence, which I felt was scientifically incorrect,"
On Emergency preparedness:
"[To write an] emergency preparedness report . . . I brought my colleagues in, as I always do to achieve consensus. . . . I then, as they say, ran it up the flagpole, went to domestic policy at the White House, spoke to HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] officials and I was given lots of different reasons. Well, this might incite, you know, scare the people. . . . I could get no traction whatsoever to move this agenda forward . . .
On Global warming:
"The issue of global warming came up . . . with senior officials, where they were heralding global warming to be nothing more than -- you know, a liberal cause and had no merit. . . . I remember thinking . . . 'Well, I understand why they want me here now. They want me to discuss the science because obviously they don't understand the science.' And I had this scientific discussion for about a half an hour, and I was never invited back."
On mentioning the President’s name:
"In my first year, clearly I was told a number of times that the president's name wasn't mentioned in the speech and I was told it should be mentioned -- at one point, at least three times on every page. And I said, 'I'm not going to do that.' . . .
On meeting with people with disabilities:
I put in my paperwork to go to this meeting [of the Best Buddies program, a program for people with intellectual disabilities that was founded by Anthony Kennedy Shriver and has long been championed by other members of the Kennedy family]. . . . I was admonished for doing that. . . . I was told that I would be helping a politically prominent family who is -- this is one of their endeavors, and why would I want to help those people? . . . I said, 'This is about sick kids. It has nothing to do with who's moving the project.' . . . I took a weekend vacation, I paid for it myself, and I went up there. . . ."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment