Saturday, June 26, 2004

Science and Politics

The Bush administration has ordered that government scientists must be approved by a senior political appointee before they can participate in meetings convened by the World Health Organization, the leading international health and science agency.

(Ryan, I hope you are still tuning in to this page every once and awhile.)

That quote is straight from this LAT article. I don't have much commentary to add. What is there to add? Scientists must be vetted before representing the United States in front of the World Health Organization. That is just down right creepy if you ask me. And Linda Rosenstock agrees:

"This is really tampering with a process that has worked very well," said Linda Rosenstock, the dean of the UCLA School of Public Health who directed the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health under President Clinton. "To have this micromanaged at the HHS departmental level raises the specter that political considerations rather than scientific considerations will determine who is allowed to go" to the world's most important scientific meetings.

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