Bush Aide With NO Medical Background, Blocked Global Health Report-It Wasn't Political Enough

[babylonsister]

Bush Aide Blocked Report
Global Health Draft In 2006 Rejected for Not Being Political

By Christopher Lee and Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 29, 2007; Page A01


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. A copy of the report was obtained by The Washington Post.

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.

Richard H. Carmona, who commissioned the "Call to Action on Global Health" while serving as surgeon general from 2002 to 2006, recently cited its suppression as an example of the Bush administration's frequent efforts during his tenure to give scientific documents a political twist. At a July 10 House committee hearing, Carmona did not cite Steiger by name or detail the report's contents and its implications for American public health.

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."

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/28/AR2007072801420.html?hpid=topnews

[blockhead]

1. ....but he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

;)

[CurtEastPoint]

2. Poppy's godson has been at this for a while...

Waxman wrote a letter to Tommy Thompson, HHS Sec. in 2004 decrying Steiger's directive that anyone (World Health Organization) wanting HHS employees expertise must have them 'cleared' by Steiger's office, a political one, because they must represente the views of the administration at all times. This is paraphrased but you do get the sick idea.

So it used to be that patronage was just giving someone a job and let them idle their time away and get paid for it. With the Bush cronies, however, they are not just collecting their salaries...they're pushing the party line and everything else be damned.

These clowns are evil and must go.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

3. 'You don't get it.'

We most certainly do.

From day one, truth has taken a back seat to propaganda and lies in every department of this cabal.

And until they are removed from office will go on with the help of a oompliant press corps, and a populace more ooncerned with Brittany and Lindsay than matters such as this.

[babylonsister]

4. Kick. nt