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CDC gets list of 7 forbidden words: fetus, transgender, diversity, among others.

Wulfric

Wulfric

Member
Per the Washington Post

The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation’s top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases — including “fetus” and “transgender” — in any official documents being prepared for next year’s budget.

Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden words are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”

In some instances, the analysts were given alternative phrases. Instead of “science-based” or “evidence-based,” the suggested phrase is “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes,” the person said. In other cases, no replacement words were immediately offered.

The question of how to address such issues as sexual orientation, gender identity and abortion rights — all of which received significant visibility under the Obama administration — has surfaced repeatedly in federal agencies since President Trump took office. Several key departments — including Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, as well as Justice, Education, and Housing and Urban Development — have changed some federal policies and how they collect government information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.

In March, for example, HHS dropped questions about sexual orientation and gender identity in two surveys of elderly people.

HHS has also removed information about LGBT Americans from its website. The department’s Administration for Children and Families, for example, archived a page that outlined federal services that are available for LGBT people and their families, including how they can adopt and receive help if they are the victims of sex trafficking.
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More at the break.
 
S

shattyboombatty

Member
This is so fucking stupid. What conceivable wothwhile reason could there be for such a pathetically petty and arbitrary ban? Is the center for controlling disease supposed to find cures for diseases with wishful thinking instead of science and evidence? It's sad that the people making these decisions are so at war with the concept of "evidence", that they're throwing public wellbeing under the bus.
 
N

Night Angel

Member
The ban of evidence-based and science-based is equally, if not more, concerning.

Is it a religious angle? Do we prefer fiction-based decisions from regulatory/health agencies now? Are feels truly greater than reals?
 
D

Dunki

Member
As someone who is against censorship in any form this is very concerning. I also think there is NO benefit whatsover in doing this.
 
M

Mark Andrew

Member
I can see the political motivation behind most of these, but can someone explain what makes vulnerable a bad word? Especially for a health-based organization?
 
BibiMaghoo

BibiMaghoo

Member
Mark Andrew said:
I can see the political motivation behind most of these, but can someone explain what makes vulnerable a bad word? Especially for a health-based organization?
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The word evokes empathy for those worse off, just as entitlement anger towards those better off. Both are words used to alter opinions in wars of class, one for helping those in need, the other for scorning those who don't.
 
Dude Abides

Dude Abides

Banned
Mark Andrew said:
I can see the political motivation behind most of these, but can someone explain what makes vulnerable a bad word? Especially for a health-based organization?
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People sometimes use the phrase “vulnerable populations” to refer to people conservatives don’t like, such as poor people, non-whites, gay people, or women. Conservatives would prefer not to talk about those people unless they’re attacking them.
 
I

i-Lo

Member
Dude Abides said:
People sometimes use the phrase “vulnerable populations” to refer to people conservatives don’t like, such as poor people, non-whites, gay people, or women. Conservatives would prefer not to talk about those people unless they’re attacking them.
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Now now there's no such thing as vulnerable people. The only fact is alternative one and least we forget there's a war on Christmas. Hopefully they will add "happy holidays", "discriminated", "minority", "institutional racism", "domestic terrorist", "scientifically proven", "evolution", "net neutrality", "indisputable fact" et al to the list soon.
 
B

Baraka in the White House

2-Terms of Kombat
Night Angel said:
The ban of evidence-based and science-based is equally, if not more, concerning.

Is it a religious angle? Do we prefer fiction-based decisions from regulatory/health agencies now? Are feels truly greater than reals?
Click to expand...

Yep. Trump's rise is the ultimate proof that facts simply don't matter. Choose your reality and yell it loudly and often enough for folks to start believing it, or at least not questioning it.
 
Z

Zizbuka

Banned
I fear the US is on it's way to becoming a massive cult. A leader who spews lies, sheep who believe every word, us against them mentality. All we need is a master race of blonde headed, blue eyed specimens. History repeating itself?
 
D

Dunki

Member
gohepcat said:
"The assertion that HHS has 'banned words' is a complete mischaracterization of discussions regarding the budget formulation process"

So they had a discussion about "recommended" words.
This is bad. Really bad.

It's a politicization of the CDC. You don't recommend words to researchers. In fact, you go out of your way to avoid this type of stuff.
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I agree with this. Government should not influence in research. They have to analyze the results and then take action if its vindicated but you never should influence it. Same happened in Germany with a study about poverty in Germany.
 
G

gatti-man

Member
HoodWinked said:
this is kind of a fud story, CDC refuted the claims

CDC director says there are ‘no banned words' at the agency
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/cdc-director-says-there-are-no-banned-words-at-the-agency
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Having recommendations on words is almost just as bad. This is like saying police don't have ticket quotas and then when they don't write enough tickets they get performance reviewed. She's obfuscating the truth and we all know why.
Kadayi said:
https://www.snopes.com/2017/12/15/trump-administration-bans-cdc-officials-using-certain-words/

Seems to be a non-story
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Completely disagree if you read the whole thing it's exactly like I said above.
 
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