7 ms·
Indeed, I just recently learned, this is why the CDC is in Atlanta: > On July 1, 1946 the Communicable Disease Center (CDC) opened its doors and occupied one f
by js2 6y ago
Indeed, I just recently learned, this is why the CDC is in Atlanta:
> On July 1, 1946 the Communicable Disease Center (CDC) opened its doors and occupied one floor of a small building in Atlanta. Its primary mission was simple yet highly challenging: prevent malaria from spreading across the nation. Armed with a budget of only $10 million and fewer than 400 employees, the agency’s early challenges included obtaining enough trucks, sprayers, and shovels necessary to wage war on mosquitoes.
https://www.cdc.gov/about/history/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/about/history/index.html
- blnqr 6y agoIf only the CDC would stick to work on communicable diseases
- dan-robertson 6y agoTheir mandate changed. They are not the centre for disease control and prevention and they act in accordance with their mandate as a public health agency
- blnqr 6y agoYes, I know. I have friends there who are fantastic, smart, committed civil servants working within their mandate and structure. I have a Master's in Public Policy from the Kennedy School, I'm not anti-government. But mission creep has hurt the CDC more than helped the nation. Public health is far too big a remit for any one agency.
- Naracion 6y agoI know this is a typo, but it reverses the meaning so clarifying for future readers in case it's confusing: They are _now_ the centre for disease control and prevention
- gvjddbnvdrbv 6y agoI'm confused I've never heard of it getting involved in anything else. What do you mean?
- Broken_Hippo 6y agoWell, don't they do other things that involve health? Like drinking guidelines and dietary guidelines and cancer research/information and things of that sort? Still well within the realm of health and certainly affects communicable diseases (an unhealthy population is more prone to worse effects of disease).
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- mhb 6y agoGuns: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/firearms/fastfact.html https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/firearms/fastfact.htm...
- gvjddbnvdrbv 6y agoI would tend to agree that they have no place talking about guns.
- js2 6y agoCollecting gun-related injury and fatality data allows us to make evidence-based informed decisions about what types of legislation are likely to be effective to reduce harm. For example: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-05/the-3-gun-control-laws-that-work-best-in-the-u-s https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-05/the-3-gun...
- mhb 6y agoAnd that has nothing to do with Disease Control and is a clear demonstration of mission creep. The CDC has recently displayed its incompetence regarding its core function. Maybe it should master that before addressing other issues of society which are, at best, only tenuously in its purview.
- Broken_Hippo 6y agoWhy? What do they do that you oppose?
- throwaway0a5e 6y agoPublic health is precariously close to politics in a lot of cases and it casts shade on their mundane and universally appreciated work on topics more directly related to disease. That said, it'd kind of inevitable that they run a course like that because constantly doing good non-controversial work banks political capital and the politicians are gonna try to harness organizations like that for their own ends.
- Broken_Hippo 6y agoSo, because some folks make it political, we shouldn't get facts about things like the HPV vaccine or the effects of birth control methods? How, exactly, are folks (who are not versed in medicine) supposed to get this information from a trusted source?