The Wall Street Journal, today, carries a front page story on the design flaws of the longitudinal study of women's health initiative, which generated findings on menapausal hormone replacement, calcium and vitamin D supplements, and low fat diets, that countered prevailing wisdom (Tara Parker-Pope, "In Study of Women's Health, Design Flaws Raise Questions," Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, February 28, 2006, A1). This story provides greater detail than the Science magazine story on the same subject to the same point, several weeks ago. The mistakes were so significant that none of the major findings can stand as refutations of conventional wisdom. The findings that were at the margins of statistical significance and indicated the conventional wisdoms were probably correct after all, will almost certainly find funding for smaller, more carefully designed studies. How did such an appalling situation of bad research arise? The answer is politics. The Women's Health Initiative originated in the hot-house hysteria of the women's movement of the 1980s, which claimed that research on women's diseases were not being as well funded as other kinds of disease research. Big money was dumped into a big study. Call it a crash medical research program--that went crash! It is an embarassment that is repeated every time political correctness and political pressure converge on Congress and legislatures. California's stem cell institute is a similar program, which had the added impetus of California's left-wing Marxism and an unsceptical dose of Lsyenokoism. Money thrown down the drain.
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