Faria Appointed to CDC Committee

Dr. Miguel A. Faria Jr., a retired neurosurgeon, former Clinical Professor of Surgery (Neurosurgery) at Mercer University School of Medicine, and contributing editor to Health Care News, was appointed in September to the Injury Research Grant Review Committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Faria began serving his term immediately, despite reported opposition by several CDC officials. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Tommy G. Thompson, who appointed Faria, defended his nomination and pointed to the Committee’s charter, which calls on it to “ensure that the diverse perspectives of leaders in injury prevention and control are considered in planning, establishment, implementation, and evaluation of the overall injury research program.”

Gun Control Controversy

Faria was one of three physicians who in 1996 testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Labor, Health, and Human Services to eliminate funding for the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) because of the agency’s alleged use of biased science to promote a gun control agenda. Several weeks after that hearing, the NCIPC lost $2.6 million in funding and was prohibited by Congress via the Dickey Amendment to use taxpayer money to conduct “gun control research.”

In July 1995, Faria was forced to resign as editor of the Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia because of his insistence on publishing articles on both sides of the gun control debate. Shortly thereafter, Faria accepted the position of editor-in-chief of the Medical Sentinel, the official, peer-reviewed journal of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS).

Faria contends medical journals should provide a balanced and objective approach to the problem of gun violence. He has testified that many medical journals instead published politicized, biased research with pre-ordained conclusions bolstering gun control. Much of that research was carried out by grants from the CDC. He insists that medical researchers have a moral duty and professional obligation to present both sides of a controversial issue, as necessary for the free exchange of ideas in a free society.

Among his duties as a member of the CDC’s Injury Research Grant Review Committee, Faria “will provide advice and guidance to the HHS Secretary and Director, CDC, concerning the scientific and technical merit of grant and cooperative agreement applications received from academic institutions and other public and private profit and nonprofit organizations, including State and local government agencies, to conduct specific injury research.”

For more information …

about Dr. Miguel A. Faria Jr., visit HaciendaPublishing.com.

For more information on the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, for whose journal, Medical Sentinel, Faria serves as editor-in-chief, visit the AAPS Web site at http://www.aapsonline.org.

This article was originally published in The Heartland Institute’s Health Care News on January 1, 2003.