DOCTORING THE FACTS

In 2001, when President Bush banned federal financing for stem-cell
research, he said that patients with Parkinson's disease and others
who might benefit from cures wouldn't be hurt because scientists
already had access to "more than 60 genetically diverse" stem-cell
lines.

He was off by 49. Only 11 stem-cell lines are available. The disdain
for facts is typical of an administration that elevates ideology over
science. In the most recent example, the Department of Health and
Human Services distorted data in a report on problems that minorities
encounter when seeking health care. For example, the report's authors
were pressured to drop conclusions that "racial, ethnic and
socioeconomic disparities are national problems" in health care and
that "there is significant inequality in (health-care) quality in the
United States." The goal of "equality of opportunities for all our
citizens" was too controversial.

The report apparently received more doctoring than most of the
subjects it studied. In a happy-talk section added to the final
version, the report emphasizes that American Indians actually have a
lower death rate from all cancers than the general population. The
reason, however, is that so many American Indians die young from
preventable health problems. They don't live long enough to die from
cancer.

In other attacks on science, the Bush administration:

- - Deleted references to global warming from EPA reports on air
pollution and the environment after research showed sharp increases in
global temperatures.

- - Removed from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site
a fact sheet about using condoms to prevent sexually transmitted
diseases and replaced it with one stressing condom failure rates.

- - Appointed W. David Hager, who practices gynecology based on
Protestant fundamentalism, to the Food and Drug Administration's
Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. Opposition to RU-486,
the "abortion pill," was Dr. Hager's prime "qualification."

- - Removed from a National Cancer Institute Web page a notice that
current studies found no link between abortion and breast cancer and
replaced it with a fact sheet implying such a connection.

Those few examples sketch the pattern. Information is withheld or
distorted, and scientific advisory panels are stacked with ideologues.
Health care, security and jobs -- the three most pressing issues for
the nation -- all rely on solid science. Junk science is blind to
pollution. Junk science can't cure diseases. Junk science can't
prevent missile attacks, launch spy satellites or produce vaccines
against biological attack. Junk science can't create the
high-technology industries America needs to replace lost jobs. In
fact, the only place junk science seems to be a growth industry is
within the Bush administration.