IT’S CHEAP ENOUGH –
April 2, 2024 – The CDC is trying, desperately, it seems, to pound a square peg into a round hole, blaming COVID-19 for a surge in alcohol use and ignoring a glaring problem with the evidence. That’s not something you generally expect from scientists. However, I would argue the CDC is no longer controlled by scientists. While dedicated scientists still work there, the CDC is now controlled by politics. Founded as the Communicable Disease Center in 1946 to control malaria, it was expanded with an epidemic intelligence service in 1951. Probably not the best name, as “intelligence service” brings up shades of the CIA. Perhaps “information service” would have been better, but that ship has sailed. By 1957, it expanded from its malaria focus to include STDs and later tuberculosis, becoming the National Communicable Disease Center in 1967, and finally, the Center for Disease Control in 1970, becoming the principal operations agency of the Public Health Service. It became plural, “Centers for Disease Control,” in 1980, absorbing first the Centers for Infectious Diseases, Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, and Environmental Health and Injury Control, then later adding Prevention Services, Occupational Safety and Health, and Health Statistics. “And Prevention” was added in 1992, but the name was not changed.
