Science-shmience

As I've said many times before, the current "ruling party" in the United States has not been particularly friendly towards science.

Today, the former Surgeon General of the United States testified that he was basically "muzzled" by the administration on a host of topics that they didn't want the American public to learn more about, from the very controversial (stem cell research) to the very well-documented (effects of secondhand smoke).

Here's a bit from the NYT article: (you might need to login)
"Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried," Dr. Richard Carmona, who served as the nation's top doctor from 2002 until 2006, told a House of Representatives committee.

"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 job of surgeon general is to be the doctor of the nation, not the doctor of a political party," Carmona added.

Can you imagine, if C. Everettt Koop had been kept from talking about the spread of AIDS because Reagan thought homosexuality was immoral? (and there is some evidence that he thought this way, based on the letters that were just published. I can't find the reference right now, but I remember reading about it...)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I see London, I see France...

Image
Saturday, June 3: Landed in London on Saturday with only 2 hrs of sleep on the plane... which is what happens when you're seated right next to the restroom. Sigh. We dropped our stuff in the apartment and went to lunch with the parents, and then we went off to find the Polish museum - only open the first Saturday of the month. Of course, we went to the wrong tube stop and had to hike a million miles... The Polish gentleman who was the tour guide was a survivor of WWII, I think. He knew everything - and assumed that we knew nothing, especially about WWII, which is not a good assumption to make with our family. Anyway, John and I were totally exhausted after the museum, so we went back to the flat for a while. The 'rents had theater tickets, so John and I stumbled out to find dinner in the rain and ended up having burgers at GBK  in Earl's Court. I think the maitre'd was American. This was the start of my string of bunless burgers (gluten-free was hard to find) on this ...
Read more

Ciao, Italia!

Image
Eating our homemade pasta at the Villa Third time's the charm, right? After two failed attempts to get to Italy (IXPUG Meeting in 2018, foiled by a Nor'easter, and May 2020 foiled by COVID) , we finally made it!  Friday, May 20: We were not the only ones in the airport with masks, but definitely in the minority. The flight to Dulles was uneventful, but the C and D gates at IAD were *packed*. Lots of school kids going to Europe.  We had the middle and window seats in the middle of the plane, but not in Premium Economy (which apparently didn't hold over from our tickets purchased 2 years ago). Ugh. The guy on the aisle was a fidgeter. And there were so many little kids on the plane! I felt bad - one of them cried for his mommy for about three straight hours. But I was also super grateful for my earplugs and eyeshades. The gluten-free food on the plane was HORRIBLE, btw. Do not recommend.  Saturday, May 21 I will say, when we arrived, it was the fastest passport check ever -...
Read more

Let the craziness begin!

The family is starting its travel madness early this year... we're all boarding planes for the other side of the pond around the same time today. Mom & Dad on BA, Bryan on Virgin, and me on AA. It's almost 9 hours from Dallas to London.... bleh. I brought some SimplySleep, so hopefully I'll nod off pretty soon. I also brought a pair of socks that have been languishing in my project bag for six months or so ( Diamante socks, from knitty, in Fleece Artist, 100% Merino, bronze colorway) I stopped at a sock-and-a-half, though it looks like I have enough yarn left to make more. One good thing: The Dallas airport D Gate area has a nice little charge station, so my laptop can charge and I can sit on a stool and not huddle on the floor near an outlet like I've had to do at the A gates. So I'm actually getting some work done. Haven't been to London in 3 years! It was about 10-15 degrees colder last time I was there (it was a month later), too, so I'm hoping ...
Read more