I started on this diary thinking it would be about how the Obama administration had proposed, thankfully, to add 50 cancer typologies for 911 health related compensation. What I found was unbelievable.
New York (CNN) -- Federal health authorities Friday recommended that 50 types of cancer be added to the list of covered illnesses for people who were exposed to toxins at the site of the World Trade Center in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
The proposal, issued by Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, asks that the World Trade Center Health Program accept the recommendations of its Science/Technical Advisory Committee.
Let's look into this John Howard.
In 2002, "Tommy Thompson, Health and Human Services Secretary placed John Howard in the post" of director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
"His term ended on July 14, 2008... He completed his term and began serving as a temporary senior advisor to the CDC director."
The Bush Administration has decided not to keep Dr. John Howard on as director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health despite strong support from business and labor after six years leading the worker safety agency within the Centers for Disease Control.
The decision follows tensions with CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding, who met with Howard Thursday and informed him that she was beginning a search for a new NIOSH director.
Gerberding "rose to become the acting deputy director of NCID and helped lead the CDC’s response to the anthrax bioterrorism events of 2001... Soon after her arrival at the CDC, Gerberding began an overhaul of the agency's organizational structure... After the restructuring began, many of the CDC's senior scientists and leaders either left or announced plans to leave."
2006... Members of an inner circle of officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received premium bonuses in recent years at the expense of scientists and others who perform much of the agency's scientific work, agency records show.
Those inside the office of the centers' director, Dr. Julie Gerberding, have benefited the most, the records show.
Using the Freedom of Information Act, the New York Times requested records of all cash awards of $2,500 or greater granted to current and former centers employees from 2000 to mid-2006.
Gerberding, whose leadership of the agency is the subject of an inquiry by the Senate Finance Committee, was not immediately available for comment, said Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the centers.
From 2002 through mid-2006, William Gimson III, the agency's chief operating officer, received bonuses totaling $147,863, which included seven cash awards of more than $2,500. Gimson's bonuses were about twice the amount granted to any other CDC employee, the agency's records show. Skinner said Gimson was not immediately available for comment.
Gimson's deputy, Barbara Harris, received six premium bonuses of $2,500 or more from 2002 through mid-2006 for a total of $84,894, agency records show. Skinner said Harris was also not available for comment.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/...
The Obama Administration did not keep Gerberding and she resigned from her post on January 20, 2009. and is now the president of Merck's Vaccine division.
On September 3, 2009, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Howard's reappointment as director of NIOSH and World Trade Center Programs coordinator for HHS.
And now we're back to where we started:
New York (CNN) -- Federal health authorities Friday recommended that 50 types of cancer be added to the list of covered illnesses for people who were exposed to toxins at the site of the World Trade Center in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
The proposal, issued by Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, asks that the World Trade Center Health Program accept the recommendations of its Science/Technical Advisory Committee.
All that money pocketed by the people Bush put at the head of the CDC. cancers going unclassified, uncompensated. Obama and Sebelius trying to put an end to it and make it right. It's unbelievable. Someone in the mainstream media needs to tell this story.
This is what it means to have decent humane Democrats in office, people. We can't let the Republicans back in. We can't. They didn't care about the 911 victims with cancer. And not only that, they just stuffed their pockets instead. I'm reminded of a certain photograph of a young Mitt Romney with his vulture capitalist pals.
This is the kind of thing that's at stake. Everyone needs to know what the conservatives did to these 911 victims, and how the Obama adminstration is trying to make it right.