Local boy does, uh, maybe not so good...

washingtonpost.com: By Christopher Lee and Marc Kaufman

A surgeon general's report in 2006 that called on Americans to help tackle global health problems has been kept from the public by a Bush political appointee without any background or expertise in medicine or public health, chiefly because the report did not promote the administration's policy accomplishments, according to current and former public health officials.

The report described the link between poverty and poor health, urged the U.S. government to help combat widespread diseases as a key aim of its foreign policy, and called on corporations to help improve health conditions in the countries where they operate....

Three people directly involved in its preparation said its publication was blocked by William R. Steiger, a specialist in education and a scholar of Latin American history whose family has long ties to President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Since 2001, Steiger has run the Office of Global Health Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services. ...

Carmona told lawmakers that, as he fought to release the document, he was "called in and again admonished . . . via a senior official who said, 'You don't get it.' " He said a senior official told him that "this will be a political document, or it will not be released." ...

n 65 pages, the report charts trends in infectious and chronic disease; reviews efforts to curb AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria; calls for the careful monitoring of public health to safeguard against bioterrorism; and explains the importance of proper nutrition, childhood immunizations and clean air and water, among other topics. Its underlying message is that disease and suffering do not respect political boundaries in an era of globalization and mass population movements.

The report was compiled by government and private public-health experts from various organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, the Catholic Medical Mission Board and several universities. Steiger's global health office provided the funding and staff to lead the effort because the surgeon general's office has no budget and few staff members of its own. ...

Richard Walling, a former career official in the HHS global health office who oversaw the draft, said Steiger was the official who blocked its release. "Steiger always had his political hat on," he said. "I don't think public health was what his vision was. As far as the international office was concerned, it was a political office of the secretary. . . . What he was looking for, and in general what he was always looking for, was, 'How do we promote the policies and the programs of the administration?' This report didn't focus on that." ...

Steiger, 37, is a godson of former president George H.W. Bush and the son of a moderate Republican who represented Wisconsin in the House and hired a young Dick Cheney as an intern. The elder Bush appointed Steiger's mother to the Federal Trade Commission in 1989. A biographical sketch of her on the American Bar Association's Web site states that Steiger's parents, now deceased, were "lifelong friends" of many members of the same congressional class, including the Rumsfelds and the Bushes.

Islamic Creationist and a Book Sent Round the World

New York Times: By CORNELIA DEAN

In the United States, opposition to the teaching of evolution in public schools has largely been fueled by the religious right, particularly Protestant fundamentalism.

The book says that creatures today are just like creatures that lived in the fossil past, so evolution must be impossible.

Now another voice is entering the debate, in dramatic fashion.

It is the voice of Adnan Oktar of Turkey, who, under the name Harun Yahya, has produced numerous books, videos and DVDs on science and faith, in particular what he calls the “deceit” inherent in the theory of evolution. One of his books, “Atlas of Creation,” is turning up, unsolicited, in mailboxes of scientists around the country and members of Congress, and at science museums in places like Queens and Bemidji, Minn.

At 11 x 17 inches and 12 pounds, with a bright red cover and almost 800 glossy pages, most of them lavishly illustrated, “Atlas of Creation” is probably the largest and most beautiful creationist challenge yet to Darwin’s theory, which Mr. Yahya calls a feeble and perverted ideology contradicted by the Koran. ...

The principal argument of “Atlas of Creation,” advanced in page after page of stunning photographs of fossil plants, insects and animals, is that creatures living today are just like creatures that lived in the fossil past. Ergo, Mr. Yahya writes, evolution must be impossible, illusory, a lie, a deception or “a theory in crisis.” ...

“In our country we are used to nonsense like this,” said Kevin Padian, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who, like colleagues there, found a copy in his mailbox.

He said people who had received copies were “just astounded at its size and production values and equally astonished at what a load of crap it is." ...

In the book and on his Web site (www.harunyahya.com), Mr. Yahya says he was born in Ankara in 1956, and grew up and was educated in Turkey. He says he seeks to unmask what the book calls “the imposture of evolutionists” and the links between their scientific views and modern evils like fascism, communism and terrorism. He says he hopes to encourage readers “to open their minds and hearts and guide them to become more devoted servants of God.”...

But despite its wide distribution, Dr. Padian predicted that the book would have little impact in the United States. “We are used to books that are totally wrongheaded about science and confuse science and religion,” he said. “That’s politics.”

If anyone reading this has received a copy they don't want, I'd be interested to see it.

Plan B Use Surges, And So Does Controversy

washingtonpost.com: By Rob Stein

The popularity of the morning-after pill Plan B has surged in the year since the federal government approved the sale of the controversial emergency contraceptive without a prescription.

Plan B sales have doubled since the Food and Drug Administration authorized the switch for women 18 and older last August, rising from about $40 million a year to what will probably be close to $80 million for 2007, according to Barr Pharmaceuticals, which makes Plan B. ...

"What we're seeing is women who needed this product now finally having access to it. For a woman in that position, it can make a real difference in her life."

But conservative groups that fought the change say they are disturbed by the surging use. ...

Plan B consists of higher doses of the hormones found in standard birth control pills. Taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, Plan B has been shown to be highly effective at preventing pregnancies. ...

Conservative members of Congress and advocacy groups strongly opposed the move. They questioned the drug's safety and argued that easier availability could encourage sexual activity and make it easier for men to have sex with underage girls. They also maintain the pill can cause the equivalent of an abortion.

The FDA delayed the move for three years despite endorsements by the agency's outside advisers and internal reviewers, leading to intense criticism that the agency was allowing politics to influence the decision. ...

Surveys and anecdotal reports indicate that some pharmacies refuse to stock the drug, some pharmacists refuse to provide it to women and some pharmacy workers mistakenly believe only the pharmacist can dispense the drug.

"Even though it's now available without a prescription, there are still significant obstacles that customers are facing around the country ... The over-the-counter access is not a cure-all."

Tashina Byrd, 24, said she was turned away by a pharmacist in Springfield, Ohio, in January after her fiance's condom broke and she tried to buy Plan B.

"He just laughed and told the attendant to tell me no one would give it to me," Byrd said. "I was enraged and humiliated."

Joycelyn Elders on the Clash of Politics, Science

Newsweek Health - MSNBC.com:

NEWSWEEK: What was your reaction to the testimony of the three former surgeons general?
Joycelyn Elders: What they were saying was true. I think each surgeon general has a different set of problems. But when they're suppressed—when they can't put the science out there for people to make good decisions about—then our ideas and our morality and ideologies and mythologies get in the way of good science. When I was the surgeon general, I did not feel that we should let politics invade science and marginalize it. And I think we’ve been seeing some of that. Of course, it didn’t start with [George W.] Bush. Look at Dr. [C. Everett] Koop, who stood up for AIDS when heaven knows the president [Ronald Reagan] didn’t want to even mention the word. And [the surgeon general under George H.W. Bush, Dr. Antonia Novella] was more muzzled than anybody ... When tobacco smoking was an issue, she only spoke about it after the state surgeons general were already suing the tobacco companies. But I do think the suppression has been going on more and more lately. And we just can't let that happen.

What does it mean for the office of the surgeon general when political pressure is brought to bear?
It destroys the office. And I think it's a very important office; it has a very important role. We're setting a dangerous precedent. We need to find a way to make that office more independent. We've got to be able to build a support system around the surgeon general such that he is not being constantly bombarded and afraid of losing his job because he's taken a position that's different from the president's. If all he's going to do is be the president's mouthpiece, what does the country need with a surgeon general?

The New Hippocratic Oath

The New Hippocratic Oath - New York Times: By Michael Feldman

I SWEAR by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and President Bush and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my and President Bush’s ability and judgment this oath and covenant:...

What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to President Bush, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself.

This might help.

Holsinger: Politics Won't Trump Science

Guardian Unlimited: By KEVIN FREKING (AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush's nominee to become the next surgeon general said Thursday he would resign rather than allow politics to push aside science.

At his Senate confirmation hearing, Dr. James W. Holsinger sought to offer assurance that he would be a strong voice for public health, unswayed by political ideology, and to answer criticism of his past writings. He said a controversial 1991 paper about homosexuality and health no longer represents his views.

Holsinger's hearing came just two days after the last person to serve in the post told Congress that the Bush administration had manipulated the surgeon general's office for political purposes.

Asked what he would do if pressured to promote ideology over sound science, Holsinger said he could never be persuaded to advocate a position contrary to his conscience.

``I think I have a clear response to that. I would resign,'' Holsinger told the Senate health committee.

Been there, heard that? Chief Justice Roberts? Justice Alito? Clarence? At least this appointment isn't for life.
And on that sterling conscience:

Committee Chairman Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said he was worried that if confirmed, Holsinger would let his own ideological beliefs cloud his scientific judgment. He referred to the paper that Holsinger wrote on homosexuality for a study committee of the United Methodist Church.

``Dr. Holsinger's paper is ideological and decidedly not an accurate analysis of the science then available on homosexuality,'' Kennedy said. ``Dr. Holsinger's paper cherry picks and misuses data to support his thesis that homosexuality is unhealthy and unnatural.''

What a difference an election makes? Or not?