Would you have a member of the Flat Earth Society advising the president on space policy? Why would you have people advising the president about approaches to public health who don't read the science?

I agree it's completely insane and shouldn't happen, but I don't know why is anyone would be shocked by this type of appointment: It continues the Bush administration's trend toward morality-based rather than evidence-based public health and HIV prevention....

When it comes to appointments the Bush Administration goes for the furthest right-wing people it can get and has been doing the same type of appointments to other panels, including leading scientific panels. It is really destroying any credibility federal panels will have on issues of science. It also serves to further right-wing ideas out in the public marketplace. These all have the effect of moving society further rightward by getting the ideas out there. Only until a right-wing person is no longer president or until our nation wakes up, realizes the insane work of this administration, or until there we and our representatives begin to speak out strongly as a whole will these types of appointments and right-wing ideologies no longer be seen as acceptable.