Says former Assistant Secretary for Health James Mason (basking in undeserved glory for successes of medicine not health fascism): "In reflecting on the past, I think our success is largely due to this being, as you have already mentioned, a non-political, non-partisan activity. It started under the Carter administration, Julie Richmond, and then it flowed smoothly during the Reagan, Bush, to the present Clinton era, and it has continued unabated by changes and politics or partisanship. I think if we are going to have the kind of success that we have had in the past, it is absolutely imperative that this non-partisan background for Healthy People continues. It doesn't matter which party is in power in Congress or the White House; this has to go on, because continuity is fundamental to this kind of success." In other words, both parties have screwed us, and just let these deluded fascists spew their corrupt pseudo-science and do as they damn please.
Julius Richmond (likewise taking false credit): "There was a feeling
that the non-infectious diseases, largely multi-factorial in their
genesis [SIC], really could not be touched. But as one of our late
colleagues, who was one of the founders of the IOM, Dr. Walsh
McDermott, was fond of saying, while nobody was looking, we began to
see a very significant reduction in mortality from heart disease and
stroke. This rang a bell. We said, well, if we can do this with these
multi-factorial diseases, why can't we do this across the board?"
[In
fact, death rates from stroke began falling in the early 1950s, long
before any organized effort began. And heart attack deaths began
falling around 1965, among all age groups, races, and both sexes,
including among smokers, despite the fact that the general population
had not embraced so-called healthy lifestyles. Furthermore, those who
were born in the 1930s never experienced death rates in young adulthood
as high as those who were born earlier. And the fact that the
proportion of deaths that occur before the victim reaches the hospital
proves that the decline has been due to a reduction in new cases, not
to improved treatment.]
"Now, in order to do this, we drew very, very heavily on, of course,
the research base, the knowledge base that is so critical, of the NIH.
Ruth Kirschstein, who is here, played a
continuing role in that
process, in keeping NIH actively involved, and the CDC, and
particularly the Center for Health Statistics, which I keep saying is
our directional compass that really tells us what directions we ought
to be going in." SIC.
cast 10-30-05