Beleaguered Bush Battles Mutiny in Iraq, Rebel Politicians, and Insurgent Offic

Members of a Reserve unit in Iraq refused to deliver a fuel shipment in unsafe conditions, calling it a �suicide mission.� Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave $3 billion to embryonic stem cell research. Britain slapped Bush in full sight of all the world. The dam broke on Vioxx and COX-2 inhibitors, revealing the fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) epidemic. The National Institute of Health (NIH) thwarted Senate power plays, bypassed the need for Open Access legislation, and made public access to medical information a contractual condition of receiving federal funds from the NIH. Adding fuel to the fire, the Environmental Protection Agency made its �Environmental Health Perspectives� an Open Access journal and put 30 years of research online, exposing the horrific impacts of environmental contamination on human health and genes � in direct opposition to the corporate agenda. From the October issue:




The original announcement also stated that certain sections of the EHP journal were translated to several other languages including French, Spanish and Chinese. Translations are commonly offered by other nations as a professional courtesy, but the EHP promise of translations seems to have disappeared.

Bush and the corporate right are pulling out the heavy ammunition. Besides the predictable bullying and political interventions, key to the strategy is a new study proving that knowledge makes people sick.

Many deluded people mistakenly think that more information, better health care, better insurance coverage, more flu vaccines, the right to make informed decisions and the like will lead to good health and a better life. Not so says the study. Especially when it comes to health. Open Access to medical information is bad. A mistake. Ordinary people do not have the education or ability to interpret information, or sift through it.

At first glance, the spin appears simply to be an attempt to use �evidence-based medicine� as an argument against public Open Access to publicly funded research. In fact, it�s much more far-reaching.

�Using the internet to manage a chronic illness can leave you in worse health than before you logged on,� says the University College London review of several recent studies, published in the latest issue of Cochrane. �The reviewers said the study had important policy implications because of the worldwide proliferation of online health programs, often at significant public expense.�

The Cochrane piece heralds a return to the Journal of the American Medical Association�s (JAMA) 2001 strategy. �A team from RAND Health in Santa Monica, California, found most people using the Internet will have difficulty finding complete and accurate information,� JAMA reported, with emphasis on the need for patients to forgo their own research and trust their physicians.

There lies the heart of the matter, and the thrust of the Bush campaign. Most people simply do not know enough � about anything, really � to presume to make their own decisions. Which is why we have doctors, and Presidents, and expert Presidential Advisors like Kenneth Lay and Raymond Gilmartin to do our thinking for us.



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[edit on 21-10-2004 by Banshee]