Sun, 27 Jun 2004 16:28:17 GMT

Scientists Now Need OK to Consult WHO. Now specific US government scientists can't even be selected to advise
international bodies without approval – the government will choose who
gets to give advice. I wonder whether or not those chosen will have
opinions in line with what the administration wants rather than what
the science says… silly question, isn't it – we already know the
answer.

Scientists Now Need OK to Consult WHO (AP).
AP – Government scientists must now be cleared by a Bush political
appointee before they can lend their expertise to the World Health
Organization, a change that a Democratic lawmaker said fits a pattern
of politicizing science. [Yahoo! News – Science]

[David Harris' Science & Literature]

The continuing degradation of American science by politically appointed hacks. This is beginning to sound like the old Soviet Union where only scientists who had been vetted by the government could speak outside the country, and Nobel prize winners were kept in house arrrest. I wonder what Linus Pauling would do (the only winner of a science Nobel and the Nobel Peace Prize)? [A Man with a Ph.D. – Richard Gayle's Weblog]

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i imagine he would be very disturbed by this sort of things, i know that it disturbs me, and that in the normal human course of events it should disturb everyone. even the possibility of blocking expertise from the world health organization is morally wrong.