The CDC was presented with a list of words yesterday by HHS and the Trump administration that they are forbidden from using in budget requests and all public documents.
Those words include:
• evidence-based
• science-based
• fetus
• transgender
• vulnerable
• entitlement
• diversity
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/cdc-gets-list-of-forbidden-words-fetus-transgender-diversity/2017/12/15/f503837a-e1cf-11e7-89e8-edec16379010_story.html
For “evidence based” and “science-based”, the new acceptable phrase is : “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes.”
But for all other terms, no alternatives were offered.
dystopia: an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.
The Trump administration appears to be taking country to that “imagined place.”
Very disturbing. Brings to mind a quote by Carl Sagan:
“Science is an attempt, largely successful, to understand the world, to get a grip on things, to get hold of ourselves, to steer a safe course. Microbiology and meteorology now explain what only a few centuries ago was considered sufficient cause to burn women to death.”
Seems pretty important for public health policies to be evidenced-based, science-based, rather than based on the “wishes” of the community.
My “wish” is to be able to eat ice cream at every meal. I hope the CDC will give science based advice on this that ignores my wish and gives the health impact advice to me straight. This is ludicrous.