Perverting science for politics

[BigV]

Well, I can't find a cite online for this story, but going from my memory of a radio story I heard a little while ago, Philip A. Cooney has "resigned". The stated reason is that he had been wanting to spend the summer with his family. The administration denies that the resignation has anything to do with this week's story that we've been discussing.

I find this sequence of events too neat and tidy to believe. It seems that the revelation of his actions, editing scientific documents, without the training to produce the report, but "producing" the conclusions, the public face, was embarassing to the administration. See you later, buddy.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by BigV

Well, I can't find a cite online for this story, but going from memory of a radio story a little while, Philip A. Cooney has "resigned". The stated reason is that he had been wanting to spend the summer with his family. The administration denies that the resignation has anything to do with this week's story that we've been discussing.

I find this sequence of events too neat and tidy to believe. It seems that the revelation of his actions, editing scientific documents, without the training to produce the report, but "producing" the conclusions, the public face, was embarassing to the administration. See you later, buddy.

For some reason this guy reminds me of Mitch Glazer , the midnight bill raider who went to work for the RIAA after rigging some legislation.

It will be interesting to see who Mr. Cooney is hired by after his summer vacation.

[Carbonated_Brains]

Sucks when the richest research community on Earth has its credibility tainted by a monkey in office and a bunch of religious wingnuts getting all uppity.

The only possible limits to research should be nondenominational ethical concerns.

And you creationists...I'm sorry, I'm a tolerant guy, but I giggle when you post ;-)

[BigV]

Originally Posted by richlevy

--snip--It will be interesting to see who Mr. Cooney is hired by after his summer vacation.

It seems clear to me that he never stopped working for The American Petroleum Institute. Not a joke.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by richlevy

--snip--It will be interesting to see who Mr. Cooney is hired by after his summer vacation.

And the answer is...:drumroll:ExxonMobil. It is worthy to note that he's been hired after a very short summer vacation with his family. All the same denials about his departure from the administration being unconnected to his tampering with scientific reports were repeated, but, quiet like. And then I also heard in the same story that the administration said that his edits didn't change anything.

This feels less like a hiring than it does a reassignment of duty station.

[warch]

http://salon.com/news/feature/2005/0...sal/index.html
Great article from Salon about mercury in childhood vaccines that has been clearly, statistically linked to autism. Government officials seem more interested in protecting pharaceutical companies than kids. culture of life and all.

The drug companies are also getting help from powerful lawmakers in Washington. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who has received $873,000 in contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, has been working to immunize vaccine makers from liability in 4,200 lawsuits that have been filed by the parents of injured children. On five separate occasions, Frist has tried to seal all of the government's vaccine-related documents -- including the Simpsonwood transcripts -- and shield Eli Lilly, the developer of thimerosal, from subpoenas. In 2002, the day after Frist quietly slipped a rider known as the "Eli Lilly Protection Act" into a homeland security bill, the company contributed $10,000 to his campaign and bought 5,000 copies of his book on bioterrorism. Congress repealed the measure in 2003 -- but earlier this year, Frist slipped another provision into an anti-terrorism bill that would deny compensation to children suffering from vaccine-related brain disorders. "The lawsuits are of such magnitude that they could put vaccine producers out of business and limit our capacity to deal with a biological attack by terrorists," says Andy Olsen, a legislative assistant to Frist.

Oh, and importing drugs from Canada is a risk...
At least take the shit off the market. Geeze. parents beware.
So far, 4 states have banned thimerosal. Lots of other states with legislation pending.

[BigV]

More appropriately posted here.

[warch]

He's a piece of work.

[russotto]

There have been other thimerosal-related studies which haven't shown a link, so this one isn't cut and dried. Personally, I think the link is there. I agree with the shield for the vaccine producers, though; if anyone should be on the hook here, it's the governments which require the vaccines.

[Happy Monkey]

The link between thimerosal and vaccines may not be 100% (Nothing in science is), but the link between Frist and the coverup and the "Eli Lilly Protection Act" certainly is. A proper political response to a risk like this is to remove the product from market pending further testing, not to hide the damning studies and ensure nobody is held responsible.

[warch]

From Kennedy's article:

What is most striking is the lengths to which many of the leading detectives have gone to ignore -- and cover up -- the evidence against thimerosal. From the very beginning, the scientific case against the mercury additive has been overwhelming. The preservative, which is used to stem fungi and bacterial growth in vaccines, contains ethylmercury, a potent neurotoxin. Truckloads of studies have shown that mercury tends to accumulate in the brains of primates and other animals after they are injected with vaccines -- and that the developing brains of infants are particularly susceptible. In 1977, a Russian study found that adults exposed to much lower concentrations of ethylmercury than those given to American children still suffered brain damage years later. Russia banned thimerosal from children's vaccines 20 years ago, and Denmark, Austria, Japan, Great Britain and all the Scandinavian countries have since followed suit.

"You couldn't even construct a study that shows thimerosal is safe," says Haley, who heads the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky. "It's just too darn toxic. If you inject thimerosal into an animal, its brain will sicken. If you apply it to living tissue, the cells die. If you put it in a petri dish, the culture dies. Knowing these things, it would be shocking if one could inject it into an infant without causing damage."

and this is disturbing, too.

The CDC paid the Institute of Medicine to conduct a new study to whitewash the risks of thimerosal, ordering researchers to "rule out" the chemical's link to autism. It withheld Verstraeten's findings, even though they had been slated for immediate publication, and told other scientists that his original data had been "lost" and could not be replicated. And to thwart the Freedom of Information Act, it handed its giant database of vaccine records over to a private company, declaring it off-limits to researchers. By the time Verstraeten finally published his study in 2003, he had gone to work for GlaxoSmithKline and reworked his data to bury the link between thimerosal and autism.

Vaccine manufacturers had already begun to phase thimerosal out of injections given to American infants -- but they continued to sell off their mercury-based supplies of vaccines until last year. The CDC and FDA gave them a hand, buying up the tainted vaccines for export to developing countries and allowing drug companies to continue using the preservative in some American vaccines -- including several pediatric flu shots as well as tetanus boosters routinely given to 11-year-olds.

[Griff]

If you don't see it close up you have no idea how disruptive having a child with autism can be. I could tell some scarey tales but we are very careful not to ever give out any personal information about our kids. One of my colleagues wrote a paper on the connection or lack of one last semester. She couldn't find a link but then again the CDC doesn't let researchers use their data. An interesting side note Don Imus has been on a bit of an autism rant for a while now. It seems the Wall Street Journal had an oddly timed and lie filled hit piece on his ranch which he attributes to giving air time to folks who are trying to prove the link. Also Kennedy was supposed to do the talk show circuit yesterday for this article which will also be in Rolling Stone. He was cancelled from the Today Show and some other booking...

It'll be interesting to see what Santorum does on this. He has been very supportive of autism research but he also knows how conservative nutball$ get elected in this country.

edit: oh yah, I've long wondered if the Chicoms would ever use their access to Americas kids(toys crayons cookware) to poison their future. It turns out thats may have been the unintended (I pray) result of the USAs third world vaccination program. How long have they known and how do CDC folks go from protecting to poisoning?

[Brett's Honey]

From 2000 to 2004, I worked at a sheltered workshop for adults with developmental disabilities. I have tremendous respect for these parents. I cannot imagine being in their shoes. I couldn't even imagine working with them eight hours a day! (I worked in administration). You see people organizing help and gathering support for parents of quintuplets, sextuplets, etc. That's wonderful and also needed, but parents of children with disabilities could always use some help, I'm sure. It's impossible for them to just be able to go out for dinner, or a movie or just to visit friends at times. And the parents of multiple birth babies eventually don't need any help. These parents can use a helping hand forever!
(And I always think...parents of multiple birth babies chose to do this! What if the help didn't come!?)

[Griff]

You are so right BH. Get to know these kids and help their parents out, the rewards can't be described.They really are a wonder. If you guys ever get the chance spend some time with them. I was warned about getting caught up in the autism world by a professor once. Being with these kids is really habit forming. My guys are so loving and bright at one moment and frustrating and violent the next that I really can't let go. I need to understand what's happening in their minds.

[Happy Monkey]

Here's a collection of fodder for this thread.