Bush Crew Screws Public Health Interests

Picture Courtesy of Google Search

In a perfect world the science tells the truth because facts simply do not lie. Enter the White House and the President and you can choose to ignore the science of facts simply because you sit behind the desk at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Pick and choose your science issues and dictate to not just the people of America but to the world what you politically want people to hear. Not the scientific facts but the political spin from a political machine.

If President Bush owned a tobacco farm then smoking would be good for you and me. Chuck the scientific facts of medical science out the window and buy a pack of butts for America! I’m just going out on a limb but I believe the President is guilty of the KISS theory, Keep It Simple Stupid. Not for our protection but his own.

Even his own hand picked former Surgeon General Carmona is blowing the horn of science over what the President wants the people to really know. Apparently, the former Surgeon General served at the Presidents will as long as it washed with the politics of the day as he felt it would serve him best.

Over at the New York Times they have this to say about our President and his thought process on what you need to know about medical science as he sees fit…

White House Is Accused of Putting Politics Over Science
By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: July 10, 2007

WASHINGTON, July 10 — Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona told a Congressional committee today that top officials in the Bush administration repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports because of political considerations.

Dr. Carmona, who served as surgeon general from 2002 to 2006, said White House officials would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues because of political concerns. Top administration officials delayed for years and attempted to “water down” a landmark report on secondhand tobacco smoke, he said in sworn testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

He was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of every speech he gave, Dr. Carmona said. He was asked to make speeches to support Republican political candidates and to attend political briefings, at least one of which included Karl Rove, the president’s senior political adviser, he said.

And administration officials even discouraged him from attending the Special Olympics because, he said, of that charitable organization’s longtime ties to the Kennedy family.
“I was specifically told by a senior person, ‘Why would you want to help those people?’ ” Dr. Carmona said.

The Special Olympics is one of the nation’s premier charitable organizations to benefit disabled people.

Dr. Carmona joins a list of present and former Bush administration officials who assert that politics often trumped science within what had previously been nonpartisan government health and scientific agencies. - New York Times

If you were to take the scenario of the facts that he shut down and dummied up the Surgeon General then what the hell did he do to the folks working for him that were supposed to look out for the Environment? Expand the thought process to other areas like the FDA or the FBI. How about the CIA or the Department of Interior? How many ways can you twist the facts to serve the people you love most?

Anyone have a list of contributors to “W’s” Presidential Library yet? If the science did not work for the friends of Bush then I’m guessing that the President put a gag order out on it.

Some notes on what the Surgeon General is supposed to do if not overruled by the White House...

Duties of the Surgeon General

To protect and advance the health of the Nation through educating the public; advocating for effective disease prevention and health promotion programs and activities; and, provide a highly recognized symbol of national commitment to protecting and improving the public's health;

To articulate scientifically based health policy analysis and advice to the President and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the full range of critical public health, medical, and health system issues facing the Nation;

To provide leadership in promoting special Departmental health initiatives, e.g., tobacco and HIV prevention efforts, with other governmental and non-governmental entities, both domestically and internationally;

To administer the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) Commissioned Corps, which is a uniquely expert, diverse, flexible, and committed career force of public health professionals who can respond to both current and long-term health needs of the Nation;

To provide leadership and management oversight for PHS Commissioned Corps involvement in Departmental emergency preparedness and response activities;

To elevate the quality of public health practice in the professional disciplines through the advancement of appropriate standards and research priorities; and

To fulfill statutory and customary Departmental representational functions on a wide variety of Federal boards and governing bodies of non-Federal health organizations, including the Board of Regents of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the National Library of Medicine, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, and the American Medical Association.

I'm thinking that the Hippocratic Oath and the Oath of President are like oil and water? Am I wrong?

Papamoka

Recommend this post to a friend...
Link to this post and we will reciprocate in kind...