How and what Americans are told about public health emergencies would be controlled by the White House, not by the agencies with the medical or scientific expertise to handle these crises, under a new plan proposed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The proposal would strip authority from federal health, safety and environmental agencies and give the White House final say over how the public is told about such emergencies as nuclear power plant accidents, outbreaks of mad cow disease or drugs that are found to be harmful.

Critics fear such a move would delay the release of critical public information and politicize the way it is presented. In comments submitted to the OMB, Dr. Jordan Cohen, president of the Association of American Medical Colleges, and Robert Wells, president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, described several recent public health emergencies where delays in releasing information could have endangered the public. Among those examples were the emergency termination of a clinical drug trial that showed the drug was dangerous, and the announcement that hormone-replacement therapy was more harmful than beneficial to many post-menopausal women. [1]

OMB's "Proposed Bulletin on Peer Review and Information Quality," which could take effect as early as several months from now, is also being opposed by a group of former top federal agency officials from both Democratic and Republican Administrations. [2]

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SOURCES:
[1] “White House Seeks Control on Health, Safety,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 11, 2004.
[2] Letter to Joshua B. Bolton, Director of the OMB from 20 former agency officials, Jan 9, 2004.