Tuesday, May 09, 2006

More manipulation of science

Via Mike the Mad Biologist, the CDC gets into the act of trumping scientists for religiopoliticos.

Researchers organizing a federal panel on sexually transmitted diseases say the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowed a congressman to include two abstinence-only proponents, bypassing the scientific approval process.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., who chairs the House subcommittee on drug policy, questioned the balance of the original panel, which focused on the failure of abstinence-until-marriage programs. In e-mail to Health and Human Services officials, his office asked whether the CDC was "clear about the controversial nature of this session and its obvious anti-abstinence objective."

Last week the title of the panel was changed and two members were replaced. One of them was a Penn State student who was going to talk about how abstinence programs were tied to rising STD rates...

"At the CDC, they're beside themselves," said Jonathan Zenilman, president of the American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association and conference organizer. "These people aren't scientists; they haven't written anything. The only reason they're here is because of political pressure from the administration."

Mike adds, "Anyone who has been following the War on Epidemiology isn't surprised by this–it's par for the course."

UPDATE:
See also Steve Gimbel's related discussion of "Einstein's Jewish science" at Philosophers' Playground.

3 comments:

Graeme said...

next they try to disprove gravity. what a group of morons

helmut said...

I'd like to see them run massive empirical tests on the hypothesis that "the steel-reinforced brick wall cannot withstand repeated rammings by the skull."

MT said...

I want them to get focus group to finally produce a grand unified theory of physics. These lab coat geeks obviously aren't up to it. People know what they want. It's not so hard.