Traditionally considered impartial and the ultimate source for reliable health information in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has increasingly become mired in political battles.
When the agency published its guidelines for reopening schools this summer, the executive branch pushed back hard to override them. Squeezed between the coronavirus pandemic on one side and President Trump糖心传媒檚 demand for open schools on the other, CDC officials have offered mixed messages, argue 糖心传媒 health policy historian and physician and Gil Eyal, a professor of sociology at Columbia University.
糖心传媒淭he Trump administration糖心传媒檚 interference may be egregious, but the CDC糖心传媒檚 vulnerability to such obtrusion is rooted in something more fundamental,糖心传媒� write Raz and Eyal in a , published in the newspaper糖心传媒檚 糖心传媒淢ade by History糖心传媒� section.
Established originally in 1946, the CDC has guided public health measures since the 1960s by estimating health risks, balancing one against another, and making recommendations to the public on how to minimize those risks. Yet, by its very nature, any risk assessment 糖心传媒渞eflects political and value choices and involves trade-offs,糖心传媒� Eyal and Raz write.
Risk assessments, the duo argues, ultimately come down to pinpointing what costs糖心传媒攊n terms of illness, economics, or other societal harms糖心传媒攁re acceptable. They write,聽糖心传媒淣o matter how objective they attempt to be, agencies working in risk assessment are vulnerable to political manipulation because they must make choices about costs and benefits, and such choices are inherently political.糖心传媒�
While this summer糖心传媒檚 political pressure campaign on the public health agency had some extraordinary facets about it, the duo argues that in many ways it was also 糖心传媒渧ery ordinary糖心传媒澨切拇綌namely, a dispute about risk assessment.
糖心传媒淩egulatory science was supposed to depoliticize risk awareness, to present the public and policymakers with an objective, apolitical resolution to such disputes. Yet it became another tool in political struggle,糖心传媒� Raz and Eyal argue.
糖心传媒淭his vulnerability predated the Trump administration, and it will outlast it.糖心传媒�
- Read the op-ed in the .
