"Democrats Protest Limits on WHO Advisory Panels"

Science -- ScienceScope article:

"Some Democrats in Congress want the Bush Administration to halt what they see as efforts to exert political control over science.

"Their focus is a 1-year-old policy on sending federal scientists to meetings of the World Health Organization (WHO). In the past, WHO would directly invite individuals from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to serve as advisers on topics such as avian flu and potentially cancer-causing chemicals. But in April 2004, then-HHS secretary Tommy Thompson's global health chief, William Steiger, announced that invitations needed to go to his office, which would choose the appropriate experts. The policy upset researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as outside public health leaders and scientific groups.

"In a 28 April letter to new HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, the 11 Democrats on the House Science Committee ask him to rescind the policy or explain the value of what legislators call a 'counterproductive' and 'potentially dangerous' policy. An HHS spokesperson said the department expects to respond 'in an appropriate time frame.'"

For years the United States sought to oppose countries that sent incompetent (or worse) representitives to WHO. Now the Administration has seriously damaged the credibility of such efforts!