Public health : the seven words that the administration Trump does not want to hear

Excerpt from Nineteen Eighty-Four, a film by Michael Radford (1984)

Published the 17.12.2017 at 17h19

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States-UnisCDCDonald Trumpsanté publiquecensurepolitiquePolitique Health

A part of Taboo, to the scale of the United States. Last Friday, the Washington Post, unveiled a information which immediately provoked an outcry in the media. According to the prestigious daily, the administration, Trump would have asked the officials of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc), the federal institution in charge of public health, refrain from using certain expressions. Words as offensive as “vulnerable” or “diversity” would now be banished from the vocabulary official of the agency.

This amazing update of the index took place last Thursday at the headquarters of the CDC, in Atlanta, at a meeting of an hour and a half, organized by the financial executives of the organisation at the destination of the coordinators of public policy. The full list consists of seven words, as capital sins : “vulnerable “, “benefit entitlement” (entitlement), ” diversity “, ” transgender “, ” fetus “, “evidence-based” (evidence-based) and “based on science” (science-based).

New minister for a month

The head of the financial service which has formulated these guidelines has not given justification, according to the source (anonymous) of the Washington Post, but merely to declare that it effect of instructions as we imagine it received in high places. In some cases, the words censored were to be replaced by periphrases. So is it ” science-based “, which would become according to the example given : “the CDC bases its recommendations on science, taking into account the standards and local preferences, community standards, editor’s note) “.

As have not failed to meet the american media, this list draws in a hollow of the black beasts of the directors Trump. The right to abortion, issues of gender identity and sexual orientation, the social aid, are all markers that the White House would like to put it under the bushel, to turn definitively the page of the Obama era. The case comes just a month after the appointment of the new minister of Health, Alex Azar, which nonetheless benefits from a reputation of competence and pragmatism (in English), the notable difference from its predecessor.

Motus and mouth stitched

On the side of the officials, very little reaction at this stage. “The assertion that the HHS would have “forbidden words” is an erroneous interpretation of discussions relating to the budget preparation process, ” responded the spokesperson of the department of Health to u.s. Health and Human Services, HHS), with ABC News. “HHS will continue to be based on the best scientific data available to improve the health of all Americans. “A point considered to be shy by the american press, which points out the lack of denial, formal.

Comprised of eight centers scattered in the United States, the CDC is a prestigious federal agency responsible for guiding the policies of public health in the u.s. in the areas of disease prevention, environmental health and health promotion. Since the arrival of Trump at the helm, and even more so since this summer (in English), the agency is required to lock its communication. On the official Twitter account of the agency, it remains imperturbable : since Friday, shows a photo of the puppy ribbon, which is supposed to warn about the dangers of germs canine. On AlternativeCDC, a account founded by anonymous employees of the CDC, it is not the other hand, is not private, these last hours, to say the forbidden words…