GAO report gives HHS agencies a D in scientific integrity reporting
I guess it isn't just us "misinformation spreaders" who are pointing out the issues of scientific integrity in the HHS agencies. A new GAO report finds the HHS agencies lacking.
On April 20, the GAO released a report expressing concern about scientific integrity inside HHS agencies and recommends that all the agencies (CDC, FDA, NIH, HHS) need to improve staff training on reporting these incidents (hence my “D” grade in the headline).
The GAO report noted that a few of those surveyed at the FDA and the CDC further stated that “they felt that the potential political interference they observed resulted in the alteration or suppression of scientific findings.”
Note that they only surveyed a 16 people total in all the agencies so a few people reporting issues in that small of a sample set suggests that the problems are massive.
Here’s the summary of the recommendations (click to see full size version):
For the full analysis of the GAO report, see this well written substack article on the GAO report.
Summary
We are not the only ones noticing a lack of scientific integrity in the HHS agencies.
Part of me wants to yell "Are you fucking kidding me!?!" While the other part is just shrugging and saying "No shit, Sherlock."
They missed the HHS/CDC's failure to submit proposed changes to data collection on COVID cases re: changes to the coroners handbook, to the OMB as required by law, violating the Paper Reduction Act and the Quality Information Act. All CDC data collection method alterations are required by law to be reported to the OMB, who are then required to submit the proposed changes to the public for a 30 day review, and they are responsible for making the final decision, not HHS or the CDC.