Chairman Waxman Investigates Apparent Censorship of Surgeon General’s Report

[babylonsister]

http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=640

Chairman Waxman Investigates Apparent Censorship of Surgeon General’s Report
July 30th, 2007 by Jesse Lee

On July 10th, the Oversight Committee held a hearing in which Richard Carmona, who resigned as Surgeon General in 2006, gave alarming testimony about what he viewed as political and partisan pressure. During the hearing, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton questioned Richard Carmona on various reports that were censored or quashed, in particular one on Mental Health Preparedness:

snip//

This weekend the Washington Post reported on one such report:

Bush Aide Blocked Report
Christopher Lee and Marc Kaufman, Washington Post - July 30, 2007

Global Health Draft In 2006 Rejected for Not Being Political

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.

Chairman Henry Waxman followed up on the hearing by requesting further documents, amongst them “All documents related to the Surgeon General’s report on global health,” and by introducing the “Surgeon General Independence Act.” Today Chairman Waxman follows up again, releasing two versions of the proposed Call to Action, one prepared by Surgeon General Carmona and global health experts, one dramatically altered by political appointee Steiger. The documents were obtained independently, not provided by the Administration.

letter follows at link~

[alstephenson]

1. It took him long enough to speak out!

He seemed to "tolerate" the situation just fine for four years. What a jerk.

[babylonsister]

2. Who are you calling a jerk, Carmona or Waxman? nt

[alstephenson]

3. CARMONA

Sorry if my post was confusing. I saw Carmona speak at an event several years ago - he seemed totally enthralled with the Bush Administration. Now he's bothered???