Health leaders have said they are alarmed about a report that officials at the US’ top public health agency are being told not to use certain words or phrases in official budget documents, including “fetus,” “transgender” and “science-based.”
The health community was reacting to a story in the Washington Post published late on Friday citing an anonymous source who said the prohibition was made at a recent meeting of senior budget officials at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The seven words and phrases — “diversity,” “entitlement,” “fetus,” transgender,” “vulnerable,” “evidence-based” and “science-based” — were not to be used in documents that are to be circulated within the federal government and the US Congress in preparation of the next presidential budget proposal, the paper reported.
A CDC official on Saturday confirmed that CDC officials were given “feedback” from higher ranks of the federal government at a recent meeting to reconsider certain language in draft budget documents.
However, she said she did not know if there was any specific prohibition about using those seven words.
She spoke on condition of anonymity, saying she was not authorized to talk about what happened.
A spokesman at the US Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, said in a statement that it is a mischaracterization to say the CDC was banned from using certain words.
However, service officials did not answer any other questions.
In an e-mail to the agency’s employees on Saturday night, CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald noted the media report and wrote: “I want to assure you that CDC remains committed to our public health mission as a science and evidence-based institution. As part of our commitment to provide for the common defense of the country against health threats, science is and will remain the foundation of our work.”
That the agency could be censoring certain language sparked alarm and anger from some science and public health experts.
“Here’s a word that’s still allowed: ‘ridiculous,’” said Rush Holt, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in a statement reacting to the report.
Boston University’s School of Public Health dean Sandro Galea said these things matter “because the words that we use ultimately describe what we care about and what we think are priorities.”
“If you are saying you cannot use words like ‘transgender’ and ‘diversity,’ it’s a clear statement that you cannot pay attention to these issues,” he said.
The CDC official who spoke to reporters said the feedback to reconsider budget language came from “higher-ups” in the US federal government, and not from anyone at the CDC.
She said she was informed of the meeting, but she was not there, and did not know who made the language suggestions.
Since US President Donald Trump took office, a number of federal agencies have moved to downscale data collection on topics like climate change and homeless people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender, and to remove information on such topics from government Web sites.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not