One of the new explosive allegations against the CDC from over a dozen employees is that the CDC's mission is influenced by rogue parties and outside interests, cheating taxpayers. The group of whistleblowers is better known as SPIDER (Scientists Preserving Integrity, Diligence and Ethics in Research.) SPIDER claims that the CDC bypasses Congress' intentions for the program. Unethical practices are undermining the federal agency's integrity and credibility.
There are concerns that CDC officials are working directly to help corporate giants in shady deals. SPIDER is troubled by a three-way relationship between Coca-Cola, a non-profit supported by Coca Cola called the International Life Scientists Institute and a couple of highly placed CDC officials. In June, Dr. Barbara Bowman retired from the CDC after emails showed that she gave guidance to a leading Coca-Cola advocate on swaying world health authorities on sugary beverage policy. Dr. Micheal Pratt's emails show a pattern of promoting and leading research funded by Coca-Cola. Pratt has co-authored research papers partially funded by the big beverage manufacturer. Pratt has also been moonlighting at the University of California San Diego which is a clear scientific conflict of interests that has already drawn attention from several national news outlets.
The CDC is supposed to protect and preserve public health but key officials are putting the food and beverage industry's interests above those of the public. The agency reports that obesity is soaring at 36.5 percent with an estimated 2008 cost of $147 billion. SPIDER accuses the CDC of manipulating the data on multi-million dollar projects. They covered up a poor performing women's health program and gave congress inflated numbers to exaggerate the programs reach. An internal review of the multi-million dollar WISEWOMAN project was squashed to conceal information from Congress and the media.
Other allegations against the CDC include suppressing the aforementioned link between the MMR vaccine and autism. They also manipulated data that would have shown "African-American boys who were given the MMR vaccine before they reached the age of three were 3.4 times more likely to develop autism." The CDC has allegedly been suppressing data on the MMR-autism link since 2003. The CDC has yet to respond to the allegations.
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