I have been interested in Steiger in part because several decades ago I used to work in the office which he now heads, and because he is so controversial an appointee of the Bush administration. The son of a former Republican Congressman, and himself a former education adviser to Tommy Thompson in the Wisconsin government, he was given a political appointment as the director of the Office of Global Health Affairs in HHS when Thompson was made Secretary of the Department. He was nominated to be Ambassador to Mozambique in January 2007, but the Senate has never confirmed that appointment.I have posted the following concerning his activities over the years:
- The Next Hurrah: Even CDC Not Immune from Political Minders
- Steiger Said to Have Blocked Surgeon General's Global Health Report on Political Grounds
- Do You See a Pattern in Bush Appointments?
- Intellectual Property Watch ? US Seeks Review Of WHO Publication Policy After Report On US Trade Deals
- Daniel S. Greenberg on The Republican War on Science
- Lessons learned from the 1976 Swine Flu Program
- William R. Steiger
- Nations to Discuss Potential Flu Pandemic
- "Democrats Protest Limits on WHO Advisory Panels"
- Chief of HHS Office of Global Health Affairs
- A Very Bad Idea!
A surgeon general's report in 2006 that called on Americans to help tackle global health problems has been kept from the public by a Bush political appointee without any background or expertise in medicine or public health, chiefly because the report did not promote the administration's policy accomplishments, according to current and former public health officials.Steiger apparently drafted his own proposal for the report, which the WP has made available on the web. It appears to be OK for a politically motivated defense of U.S. programs. In terms
The report described the link between poverty and poor health, urged the U.S. government to help combat widespread diseases as a key aim of its foreign policy, and called on corporations to help improve health conditions in the countries where they operate. A copy of the report was obtained by The Washington Post.
Three people directly involved in its preparation said its publication was blocked by William R. Steiger, a specialist in education and a scholar of Latin American history whose family has long ties to President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
of its public health balance, it would seem to focus too heavily on the Bush administration's bioterrorism initiatives, and too little on the preventable diseases that still cause unacceptably high levels of mortality and morbidity in developing nations.The Wikipedia entry on William R. Steiger includes the following:
- May 22, 2008 - NRC Handelsblad (a Dutch newspaper) reports that the director of the United States Department of Health and Human Services's Office of Global Affairs, is blocking the acceptance of a resolution condemning the practice of female circumcision during this year's General Assembly of the WHO. The article states that, when it comes to international policy, Steiger has the power to overrule the Secretary, and that, rather remarkably, the United States are the only country in the WHO unwilling to accept this legally non-binding resolution, even though the official U.S. position is that it also strongly condemns the practice. When asked, Adrien Germain (member of the NYC-based lobby group IWHC) states that 'Steiger wants to change a clause mentioning 'reproductive health', an umbrella term supposedly implicitly referencing the condonation of practices such as abortion'.
- Steiger severely criticized a World Health Organization (WHO) report on nutrition as scientifically flawed. The report was also opposed by many industry groups, making Steiger's criticism appear politically motivated. The WHO was further upset because the Department of Health and Human Services said it would choose which U.S. scientists WHO could invite as expert advisers.
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