Report sparks censorship fears at CDC
A recent report that officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were banned from using “science-based,” “transgender” and other terms has caused an uproar in the medical community, and local doctors say it could have a chilling effect on future research proposals.
It was reported Friday that the CDC has been instructed not to use seven specific terms in budget documents: “sciencebased,” “transgender,” “evidence-based,” “fetus,” “diversity,” “vulnerable” and “entitlement.” The CDC has since clarified that these words haven’t been banned outright, but the reason for their mention remains murky.
“The perception by anybody at the CDC that there are things they shouldn’t be talking about is intensely troubling,” said Dr. Ben Kruskal, an infectious disease specialist at Atrius Health. “I suspect that researchers will be thinking about how to phrase their proposals in ways to avoid these topics. But there’s only a certain amount of tip-toeing you can do.”
CDC Director Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald explained last week’s report in a statement, saying “confusion arose from a stafflevel discussion at a routine meeting about how to present CDC’s budget. It was never intended as overall guidance for how we describe and conduct CDC’s work.”
But the concept of censoring medical language as a form of political maneuvering still rankled the health care community.
Dr. Yee-Ming Chan, pediatric endocrinologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, said researchers are now hesitant to use words like “transgender” in grant titles for fear of consequence.
“It speaks to the concern that anyone using words related to these topics could have a target painted on them, and be subject to criticism and cuts in funding,” said Chan, who conducts research on transgender youth.
Fenway Health interim CEO Jane Powers said the suggestion of tweaking language to de-politicize issues was “accommodating intolerance” and harmful to public health.
“It does not matter whether there is an outright ban based on ideology, or whether the list originated as a strategy to gain support for the CDC budget among Republican conservatives,” Powers said in a statement. “Telling public health officials working to prevent Zika, HIV and other diseases what words they can use is Orwellian.”
Doctors and researchers are still trying to wrap their heads around what exactly the behind-closeddoors discussion means for them — whether there is a ban or simply a recommendation not to use certain language.
“Does this mean we can’t budget for transgender research? Are we not going to talk about diversity in the United States?” said Dr. Peter Chai, emergency medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “The United States has been a leader in medicine and science — now that we’re starting to color the way we talk about things, will there be another leader?”
But, Chai added, researchers will always have access to a thesaurus.
“Words are very important, but we’re smart people,” Chai said. “We’ll find a way to get around this.”