Did you know that the
Food and Drug Administration has been without a permanent leader for more than two thirds of both Bush terms?
Would you like to know why?
Would you be interested in knowing why this major federal agency tasked with protecting the health and the drug supply of the American people is leaderless?
Here's what the Los Angeles Times is reporting.
With the FDA stuck in the bureaucratic equivalent of slow gear, critics as well as supporters -- in a rare point of agreement -- say the agency is in danger of losing its standing in setting regulatory policy in the rapidly evolving medical and scientific fields.
At the heart of the continuing stalemate over Senate confirmation of a permanent FDA commissioner is the unresolved question of what role religion and ideology should play in making science policy.
An administration that doesn't like science.
"There is a problem with this administration in its lack of attention to science, and its lack of willingness to follow science," said Dr. Brian Strom, head of the biostatistics and epidemiology department at the University of Pennsylvania medical school. "It's an administration that doesn't seem to want to hear scientific results it doesn't like."
Within the FDA, morale and effectiveness have taken a hit.
http://www.latimes.com/...
Science? Nah.
Religion? You bet.
Virginity pledges? That too.
As you might have guessed, the current nominee, acting chief Andrew C. von Eschenbach, a cancer specialist has close ties to the Bush family. He may never get a vote in the senate.
The immediate issue is a standoff between the Bush adminsitration and Senate Democrats over how to regulate sales of the "morning-after" birth control pill known as Plan B.
But like everything involving these extremists, it gets worse. Much worse.
Another issue vexing conservatives is a promising drug which could wipe out a leading killer of women--cervical cancer.
In the New Yorker magazine, Michael Specter an eminent science and public health journalist writes a chilling tale of how religious extremism trumps science in the Bush administration.
On December 1st, Merck & Company applied to the Food and Drug Administration for a license to sell a vaccine that it has developed to protect women against the human papilloma virus. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States; more than half of all Americans become infected at some point in their lives. The virus is also the primary cause of cervical cancer, which kills nearly five thousand American women every year
The drug has demonstrated it will save lives.
The results were conclusive: twenty-one of the women who received a placebo during the trial developed the cellular abnormalities that are associated with cancer and other illnesses. Not one of those in the vaccinated group did. Another vaccine, which is being developed by GlaxoSmithKline, promises to be just as effective.
Christian conservatives though don't like this breathtaking medical breakthrough.
Vaccinations for contagious diseases like measles and mumps are required before a child can enter public school. That won't be the case with the HPV vaccine, however. The Bush Administration, its allies on Capitol Hill, and the religious base of the Republican Party are opposed to mandatory HPV vaccinations. They prefer to rely on education programs that promote abstinence from sexual activity, and see the HPV vaccine as a threat to that policy.
These fanatics say vaccinating young people could lead to unrestrained sexual activity. Conservatives will opt instead for virginity pledges.
"I personally object to vaccinating children when they don't need vaccinations, particularly against a disease that is one hundred per cent preventable with proper sexual behavior," Leslee J. Unruh, the founder and president of the Abstinence Clearinghouse, said. "Premarital sex is dangerous, even deadly. Let's not encourage it by vaccinating ten-year-olds so they think they're safe." Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, a family physician and a prominent leader among those who believe that abortion should be illegal, has argued repeatedly in Congress that since condoms can fail, the nation should stop relying on them so heavily. In 2004, he made his position clear when he testified about his experience treating patients who have been infected with HPV: "Studies have indicated for years that promiscuity was associated with cervical cancer."
Michael Specter wanted to speak to the acting FDA commissioner who is also an oncologist about the HPV vaccine. Here's what he said.
Bush Administration health officials decline to discuss the vaccine while it is under consideration by the F.D.A. "I can't talk about that," Andrew Von Eschenbach said when I visited him at the National Cancer Institute, which he runs. "I would love to. But it just would not be appropriate."
Opposition to science runs deep in the Bush administration.
Despite the official silence, the Bush Administration has been relentless in its opposition to any drug, vaccine, or initiative that could be interpreted as lessening the risks associated with premarital sex. It has made every effort to diminish the use of condoms as a method of birth control in the United States and throughout the world. Government policy requires that one-third of H.I.V.-prevention spending go to "abstinence until marriage" programs. Since George W. Bush became President, the United States has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on abstinence programs, and it has cut almost that much in aid to groups that support abortion and the use of condoms as a primary method of birth control.
Scientists fear for the future of research.
Alan Leshner, the chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, told me. "Some of it is religion and some of it is ideology. But science is now encroaching in areas that are too close to core human values. And it makes people afraid."
Even more chilling, Leshner says:
"And then that's the end of it," he said. "What we are seeing is the empowerment of ideologues who have the ability to influence the course of science far more than ever before. They say, 'I don't like the science, I don't like what it is showing,' and therefore they ignore it. And we are at a place in this country today where that can work. The basic integrity of science is under siege."
You can read Michael Specter's entire article here. It's somber reading. It chronicles the grip of the lunatic right on this government.
Now add this to our never ending health care woes.
http://www.wesjones.com/...