And you thought the government cared...

It seems as though the Surgeon General has outed the politicians in Washington for their care about health issues. According to reports, Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona declared to a House committee hearing that top Bush administration had tried to suppress health reports concerning stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues. Furthermore, they tried to water down the report of second hand smoke causing harm.

Several past surgeon generals expressed similar sentiments about important issues, such as needle exchange and AIDS.

This, of course, prompted Nominee for Surgeon General Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., to assure the Senate committee that he would not bend to politics. You can read more interesting tidbits about his hearing in the link provided.

I'm starting to hate our political system more and more by the day. Where something is intended to help the people, such as the reports issued by the surgeon general, politics has to get involved to stop it. So much for the government looking out for the best interests of our people, hmm?

The problem is, of course, our system as a whole. But we can't exactly overthrow the system and expect good to come from it. I don't know what needs to be done. Perhaps just separating agencies like the Surgeon General's office and NIH from politics will allow scientists to do what they do best.. science. But then again, how far can we remove those entities from the government when they receive government funding?