From the WSJ, here’s a story that, sadly, isn’t really surpsing at all.
A group of scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team pleading with him to restructure the agency, saying managers have ordered, intimidated and coerced scientists to manipulate data in violation of the law.
The nine scientists, whose names have been provided to the transition team and to some members of Congress, say the FDA is a “fundamentally broken” agency and describe it as place where honest employees committed to integrity can’t act without fear of reprisal.
“There is an atmosphere at FDA in which the honest employee fears the dishonest employee,” according to the letter, addressed to John Podesta, head of Mr. Obama’s transition team.
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The agency has been under fire from both parties in both Houses of Congress as being too close to industry. Several leading politicians, including Sen. Chuck Grassley have complained that FDA leaders often ignore or suppress their own scientists’ opinions on safety issues involving drugs and devices.
Those concerns were also aired in a report by the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine in 2006. FDA leaders, including drug division chief Janet Woodcock, have said they are working to improve the culture at the FDA, and are listening to dissent from their experts and doctors.
When we consider the disastrous presidency of George W. Bush, perhaps we think first about the most spectacular failures and crimes – the phony war, torture, rendition, Guantanamo, etc. But this administration has also been a calamity when it comes to the concept of “good government.” It will be one hell of an uphill battle for the Obama administration to try to restore accountability to the executive branch and its massive bureaucracy. I wish them good luck.