Wellness enthusiasts share a commitment to science as the only reliable tool for understanding, predicting, controlling and/or assessing competing claims and understanding how things work, from cosmic wonders to everyday occurrences. Of course, not ALL wellness enthusiasts and promoters respect the logic and methods of science---witness health "experts" who employ the term "wellness" in an irrational "New Age" context (i.e., the gobbledegook of Deepak Chopra), or those who remain in the thrall of supernatural thinking (i.e., physician Larry Dossey extolling the wonders of intercessory prayer), or others who advocate pseudoscientific healing modalities e (i.e., Andrew Weil, a proponent of homeopathy, a modality so bizarre it almost makes chiropractic sound sensible by comparison, though it isn't!). Yet, most who embrace wellness as a multidimensional concept with varied skill areas, seen in the "lifestyle artistry" model at this website, are committed to science as the most effective method by which we might better understand the universe, solve problems and improve human life.
All wellness promoters who respect science must be aghast when politicians try to warp, distort, thwart and gorp (excuse the alliterative excess) science to conform to religious and other restrictions, dogmas and prejudices. In fact, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a prominent group of 60-plus (including twenty Nobel laureates), recently issued an extensive expose demonstrating that the Bush administration agenda has been anti-science! A message at the UCS website (http://www.ucsaction.org/action) offers this summary of the group's report: "Across a broad range of public policy issues and on an unprecedented scale, the Bush administration is censoring and distorting science-based information that does not match its agenda. This misuse of science has serious consequences for our health, safety, and environment. Urge your representatives and senators to insist that congressional science committees investigate this important issue."
The 38-page UCS report charges the administration with shamelessly distorting scientific positions in service of policy goals harmful to the environment, public health, biomedical research and the control of nuclear weaponry at home and abroad. According to the report, the administration repeatedly censors and suppresses the work of its own scientists. In addition, the Bush administration is faulted for stacking advisory committees with unqualified political appointees, disbanding government panels that give unwanted advice, and refusing to seek independent scientific expertise.
The areas of science wherein an independent, fact-finding perspective has been ignored or flouted include but are not limited to the work of scientists at the departments of Agriculture, Interior and the Centers for Disease Control. Dr. Kurt Gottfried, an emeritus professor of physics at Cornell University who signed the UCS statement, said the administration has "engaged in practices that are in conflict with the spirit of science and the scientific method." Examples include:
* Global warming. The administration belittled, misrepresented, altered or quashed multiple reports that established links between fossil fuels (the burning of) and greenhouse gas emissions.
* Mercury emissions. Reports have been sanitized about emissions from power plants to benefit the president's friends in the oil, gas and coal industries. (See NY Times story, "Uses and Abuses of Science," February 23, 2004.)
* Only findings we agree with, please. On the NIH website, information about scientific findings of the National Cancer Institute that abortions do not increase the risk of breast cancer was removed. In response, a bipartisan group of congressional representatives wrote to NIH asking that this information be re-posted because "women must have access to scientifically accurate and unbiased health information." To date, no such action has been taken.
* In December, two FDA advisory committees recommended that the agency allow sales of the "morning after" pill without a doctor's prescription. However, significant opposition from the religious and political right ensued, and the FDA delayed (by at least 90 days) a decision to grant over-the-counter status that would have allowed timely access to emergency contraceptives. Once again, concerned scientists claim this delay reflects the administration's "propensity to elevate its ideology and perceived political needs over scientific research, especially when it comes to matters touching on women's health and abortion." (See New York Times, "Science or Politics at the F.D.A.?" February 24, 2004.)
This is an unprecedented situation--the manipulations of the current administration to obstruct science at odds with their ideology should concern every wellness promoter and all Americans. Fortunately, current polls indicate that a majority of voters want to rid the nation of this gang of fanatics. The opportunity to do so is coming on November 2. Please vote!
Be well. Look on the bright side of life.