Creepy liars

I’m not a huge fan of Carl Hiaassen’s, but one of his books has a marvellous PR campaign waged against a crooked theme park. The kind of exuberant lying that both sides indulge in seems like satire, until you read this, which is an account of some of the changes made by the White House to a scientific report:

• The final version eliminates the conclusion that healthcare disparities are “national problems.” The scientists’ draft found that “racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities are national problems that affect health care at all points in the process, at all sites of care, and for all medical conditions — in fact, disparities are pervasive in our health care system.” The final version states only that “some socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, and geographic differences exist.”
• The final version drops findings on the social costs of disparities and replaces them with a discussion of “successes.” The scientists’ draft concluded that “disparities come at a personal and societal price,” including lost productivity, needless disability, and early death. The final version drops this conclusion and replaces it with the finding that “some ‘priority populations’ do as well or better than the general population in some aspects of health care.” As an example, the executive summary highlights that “American Indians/Alaska Natives have a lower death rate from all cancers.” The executive summary does not mention that overall life expectancies for American Indians and Alaska Natives are significantly shorter than for other Americans or that their infant mortality rates are substantially higher.
• The final version omits key examples of healthcare disparities. The scientists’ draft concluded that racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage cancer, die of HIV, be subjected to physical restraints in nursing homes, and receive suboptimal cardiac care for heart attacks. The final version drops these examples. The report instead highlights milder examples of healthcare disparities, such as the finding that “Hispanics and American Indians or Alaska Natives are less likely to have their cholesterol checked.”

Especially wonderful is the bit saying that the Alaskan indians don’t get cancer as often as other people. Neither did front line soldiers in the First World War. They hardly ever died of cancer, which shows how dangerous peacetime and prosperity are to health.

But all this is only a matter of degree, not of kind, compared to the normal standards of science journalism. Governments get away with it because journalists allow it and readers want them to.