scary Republican House "Sound Science" hearings

[Physicist]

The House of Representatives recently had committee hearings on “Sound Science” with some interesting expert testimony.

One of the "experts," Paul Driessen, told about the havoc wrecked by "the malaria virus" as a result of the "ban" on DDT. “Nothing works better than DDT,” he told the House subcommittee.

But malaria is not caused by a virus, it is caused by a protozoan. DDT is not banned - it is still used in 11 countries, and in many other places it is useless because overuse of DDT has lead to resistance in mosquitoes. Driessen's claim for the effectiveness of DDT is not based on medical research. New medicine can cure it at a cost of 40 cents for drugs for a complete treatment. And finally, Rachel Carson did not oppose anti-malarial use of DDT, as Driessen implies. Her book, Silent Spring, only opposed the massive use of DDT for agriculture.

The essence of his testimony appeared on techcentralstation.com, (a lot of Congressional testimony ends up on this lobbyist-run website, coincidence?)
http://www.techcentralstation.com/030804F.html
Here is a pdf of his testimony: http://www.house.gov/resources/archives/108/testimony/2004/pauldriessen.pdf
On page seven he tells the House Subcommittee on Energy and Natural Resources about the “malaria virus.”

Feb 4 hearings on sound science.
http://www.house.gov/resources/archives/108/emr/02_04_04.htm

I have seen the DDT ban myth trotted out at this year’s CPAC conference, and I wonder “VP Cheney is at this conference. If they really believe this stuff, why don’t they try to change the administration’s policy towards DDT?”

[burrowowl]

1. God or Godess help us!

Science and Repugs are mutually exclusive.
May Science win!

[cprise]

2. Excellent points

Welcome to DU Physicist. :)

[MinnFats]

3. yeah, welcome. and keep us abreast of this stuff, OK?

not too many of us DUers are geniuses (would that be genii?) here. Personally I had to take physics pass/fail (does any institution allow such things any more) so it wouldn't destroy my GPA.

the info about the DDT testimony is truly frightening, and disgusting as well.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. I've heard about the DDT ban myth, too...

but didn't realize it went this far.

FWIW, Gingrich fired the science and technology experts working for the house at the time. House Science and Technology Office, or some such thing it was, and closed it down entirely.

They had the function of attempting to give unbiased advice and background on technical stuff to legislators who were entirely clueless, and likely would have stopped this sort of nonsense in its tracks.

Your tax dollars at work again.