A local NBC affiliate in the San Francisco Bay area has discovered that nearly $1.5 million in research grants funded by President Barack Obama’s stimulus went to studies “into the erectile dysfunction of overweight middle aged men and the accurate reporting of someone’s sexual history.”
NBC Bay Area reports:
NBC Bay Area talked to the University of California San Francisco, the institution that received the grant. “Does it make you wonder a little bit, stimulus money for a study like this?” Kovaleski asked Jeff Sheehy, who works at the UCSF Aids Research Center. “No it doesn’t,” he answered. “Because to my mind we save money if we get better health outcomes.”
According to the grant, a good portion of the study will “Improve the accuracy of responses to questions,” specifically questions about a person’s sexual behavior…
“How many jobs did this $1.26 million dollars create?” “Well I can’t really say,” Sheehy said. “There were eleven researchers hired on the job, two consultants. Well I can’t say. This has not been evaluated for job creation.”
The number Sheehy quoted during an interview with NBC Bay Area did not match information on recovery.gov, the government’s website for stimulus funds. According to the site, the grant produced 0.85 jobs. “It does make you scratch your head and wonder,” Amey said, “Wait a second taxpayer dollars went to a sex study that barely funded less than one person.”
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