Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden words are "vulnerable," "entitlement," "diversity," "transgender," "fetus," "evidence-based" and "science-based."
You don't say!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 17 2017, @06:43AM (2 children)
This is a very worrying move, but that concern is obvious and shared and doesn't benefit from having an AC draw attention to it.
The fact it is felt necessary to stop the CDC from saying "evidence-based" and "science-based" implies that they are currently using those terms, and this isn't such an obvious concern, and I feel is worth drawing attention to. Although perhaps I misunderstand those terms/the purpose of the CDC.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Sunday December 17 2017, @02:02PM (1 child)
"Evidence-based" has a rather specific meaning in medicine. Most medical practice is not evidence-based in this sense. Doctors rely on their judgement, their experience in similar cases, the experience and expertise of colleagues, and so forth in treating patients. Most of the time it works well.
But then come the scientists, who point out that none of that is a proper double-blind scientific study with control groups and statistical analysis. Of course they are right. It isn't. So is born "evidence-based" medicine, which does rely on proper scientific, testable studies. Often these properly controlled studies support existing practice. But every now and then they contradict common practice, so they are valuable and common practice changes.
But it is not really feasible to practice only evidence-based medicine. There simply have not been enough properly executed scientific studies. And some things are even practically impossible to do proper double-blind studies on. As an example of such a thing in ordinary, non-medical experience, consider that there has never been a double-blind study on whether the use of a parachute improves survival when a person jumps out of an airplane.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 17 2017, @05:02PM
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Filter error: Missing Comment.
(A nice change from invalid form key at least)