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.
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