The Bush Administration's assault on science continues

From Calpundit:
Congress mandates that HHS produce an annual report on healthcare
disparities related to race and poverty. The most recent version was
released a month ago, but it turns out that the final version released
by the political troops was dramatically different from the initial
draft written by HHS scientists. Upon learning of this, Bush heckler-in
chief Henry Waxman commissioned a report comparing the scientists' draft with the final draft. Here's my favorite part:

The scientists� draft concluded that �disparities come
at a personal and societal price,� including lost productivity,
needless disability, and early death. The final version drops this
conclusion and replaces it with the finding that �some �priority
populations� do as well or better than the general population in some
aspects of health care.� As an example, the executive summary
highlights that �American Indians/Alaska Natives have a lower death
rate from all cancers.�

You gotta love it. Amid all the bad data they were able to find a few
examples where minority groups did better than others, so they
highlighted that instead. This is sort of like commissioning a report
on income disparities and highlighting the fact that blacks do very
well in the area of professional basketball.

Posted by flow Frazao on January 14, 2004 at 07:25 AM | Permalink