"Political Science"

I highly recommend everyone read Michael Spector's article in the March 13 New Yorker, "Political Science: The Bush Administration's war on the laboratory."

There is a great deal to say about the examples of politicized science Spector writes about, but let me start by giving the conch to a young friend, Deborah Popowski [deborah_a_popowski@yahoo.com]who emailed the following:

Dr. Reginald Finger is a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an influential government committee linked to the CDC that advises the Administration on vaccine-preventable diseases.

His views on the policy considerations that the Committee would take into account should an HIV vaccine became available:

"'We would have to look at that closely,' Reginald Finger, an evangelical Christian and a former medical adviser to the conservative political organization Focus on the Family, said. 'With any vaccine for H.I.V., disinhibition' - a medical term for the absence of fear - 'would certainly be a factor, and it is something we will have to pay attention to with a great deal of care.'"

[This quote was] buried in a frightening article on the possibility that the Bush Administration will refuse to approve a highly effective HPV vaccine -- an immunization that would likely prevent cervical cancer, killer of nearly 5000 American women each year. Current opposition to the vaccine centers around the fear that inoculating high school girls against a sexually transmitted virus will send the wrong message. Meanwhile, studies show that more than half of Americans become infected with HPV at some point in their lives.

Dr. Finger speaks about the HIV vaccine in the hypothetical. But his views and power on HPV are very real, and very timely. And his statement strikes me as the most horrific, scandalous, and unforgivable thing I have heard in a long, long time - for a public official, a scientist, a father, a person to say. Apparently, he - and some of the other people running this country - value their daughters' virginity more than they do their daughters' lives. Given the power, they might choose not to eradicate cervical cancer. And one day, AIDS. Why get rid of fear of disease and death, as long as there's a chance it might dissuade women from having sex?

If this strikes any kind of chord in you, please e-mail me. And forward this on. I feel the need to do something. I think this man needs to be reviled, shamed on a scale so large that he will never be allowed to hold a public position ever again. Apparently, he steps down from ACIP this year, but who knows where he will go next. Someone should be keeping an eye on him, making sure that his views are widely known.

FYI:
FINGER, Reginald, M.D., M.P.H.
3470 Flying Horse Road
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80922
TERM: 04/22/03-6/30/06