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Remember when the CDC started tracking gun violence as an "epidemic"? Surely someone should but the CDC doing so is clearly outside of its charter. That was o
by throwawaymaths 1y ago
Remember when the CDC started tracking gun violence as an "epidemic"? Surely someone should but the CDC doing so is clearly outside of its charter. That was one major moment that betrayed the CDC becoming a political and not a scientific organization
- ceejayoz 1y agoHelp me understand how gunshot wounds have nothing to do with public health? They study the other common forms of death/injury. If anything, giving guns a special exemption from scrutiny is the political move.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- throwawaymaths 1y agoPlenty of other organizations public and private already handling this issue. No need to waste funds on it. Anything less is a dangerous distraction for the CDC which really needs to focus on its core competency -- protecting the us from pathogenic threats. Should the department of HUD send rockets to space? Of course not.
- ceejayoz 1y ago> Plenty of other organizations public and private already handling this issue. So? We have more than one law enforcement agency, too. > Should the department of HUD send rockets to space? Of course not. Should the department of Health touch on a major health issue? Of course.
- throwawaymaths 1y agoCDC is not "the department of health". That would be DHHS.
- ceejayoz 1y ago“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.”
- throwawaymaths 1y agoYes that's exactly the problem. Scope has been creeping for decades. Effort reduplicated across several sub branches of DHHS
- ceejayoz 1y agoI’m not sure how to explain to you that some problems are multi-factorial. Have you never needed another department’s assistance with a work task? The CDC and HUD (and EPA and DOJ and whatnot) would both be involved in lead exposure in children, for example. Different aspects of the same big problem.
- DoctorOetker 1y agoIs work an epidemic? At what rate do people die or get injured at work?
- ceejayoz 1y agoIt is the leading cause of death for children and teens.
- DoctorOetker 1y agoThats interesting, do you have some references?
- ceejayoz 1y agohttps://publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/guns-remain-leading-cause-of-death-for-children-and-teens https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/guns-remain-leading-cause-... https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2201761 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2201761 https://www.kff.org/mental-health/child-and-teen-firearm-mortality-in-the-u-s-and-peer-countries/ https://www.kff.org/mental-health/child-and-teen-firearm-mor... https://www.google.com/ https://www.google.com/
- DoctorOetker 1y agoI thought you were talking about work, its not clear you were talking about guns in your comment.
- ceejayoz 1y agoThe CDC tracks accidents, too. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/accidental-injury.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/accidental-injury.htm
- throwawaymaths 1y agoYeah maybe the CDC should get into the business of OSHA too.
- unsnap_biceps 1y agoThe mental health of the perpetrator is also a public health concern and could fairly be considered a epidemic
- ceejayoz 1y agoYes. The folks who want us to pretend gun violence isn’t a problem also oppose mental health funding.
- throwawaymaths 1y agoThis is a problem. Government departments must have delimited authority and scope. There are other government and nonprofit entities tracking gun violence. Absolutely no need for CDC to get involved except for stupid politics. It's a distraction from their core mission.
- Gigachad 1y agoI doubt this took much of their resources or attention at all. Seems more like commenters are mad about this data being tracked rather than genuine concern over the departments resource allocations.
- jeffbee 1y agoThe CDC was directed by Congress to prevent injuries by the 1986 Injury Prevention Act and the 1990 Injury Control Act, notwithstanding your superficial and frankly moronic understanding of the agency.
- Esophagus4 1y ago> It's a distraction from their core mission. So if they can study gun violence while still accomplishing their core mission without distraction, surely you’d be ok with this, I presume?
- cosmicgadget 1y agoAren't 2Aers the ones pushing the narrative toward mental health so they don't get slapped with gun control?
- lubujackson 1y agoDon't have a dog in this race, but were they also tracking deatha from auto accidents and the like? Because if it was part of a big pie chart of how people die, then no problem. If it was specifically only about guns, then it was political.
- ceejayoz 1y agoAnswering that question takes less time than the comment took to type. https://www.cdc.gov/transportation-safety/about/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/transportation-safety/about/index.html
- magicalist 1y ago> but were they also tracking deatha from auto accidents and the like? I mean, are we doing learned helplessness tonight or just pretending for rhetorical reasons or...? https://www.cdc.gov/transportation-safety/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/transportation-safety/index.html
- braiamp 1y agoAll external injuries (mostly traumas, but also burns, poison, frostbite, etc.) that result in deaths, no matter their intention (murder, accident, suicide) have 2 chapters dedicated in the International Classification of Diseases 10 (also 11). Yes, tracking what harms and kills people is kinda important from the public health standpoint, so that there are resources to deal with the injuries and educate in case of prevention. It also happens to be interested in work related injuries too! https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/en#/XIX https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/en#/XIX https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/en#/XX https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/en#/XX
- random3 1y agoSo better throw the baby with the bath water and not have CDC then have CDC treat gun violence or suicides as an epidemic, yes?
- throwawaymaths 1y ago[flagged]
- ceejayoz 1y agoIt would be deeply political for the CDC to ignore the top cause of death of children in the USA. If you oppose politicization of health, that should be an easy point of agreement.
- jeffbee 1y agoIt would also be political, and unlawful, for the CDC to fail to fulfill the mandate that Congress has given it to prevent injury for the last 39 years.
- etchalon 1y agoThe political thing is thinking studying gun violence is political.
- kristopolous 1y agoNo. The act of politics is dictating things based on a political ideology, for their advocacy or absence. That's what you're doing, it's strict political advocacy. I'm tired of people claiming something is political and then wanting to legislate it based on politics and claiming that isn't
- random3 1y agoHas the stability of CDC changed between this and the rest of presidencies, across the political spectrum? Your angle reminds of a recent post - > "John, when people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together."— Isaac Asimov, The Relativity of Wrong
- robbiewxyz 1y agoTo add to other comments, gun violence has a massive mental health component for which preventative treatment can save many lives. Of course it warrants study! And given the well-documented copycat-killer phenomenon, modeling it similarly to an epidemic is very reasonable.
- Esophagus4 1y agoI’ve always found this to be an absurd political position: - shooting deaths are not a gun problem, they’re a mental health problem. So we won’t fix anything by solving the gun problem. “Ok… can we solve the mental health problem, then?” - also no.
- jaybrendansmith 1y agoGreat timing with this comment, as 20 children are shot in a church.
- specialist 1y agoWhat is your threshold for epidemic? Does 47,000 deaths per year (13.7 per 100,000) not qualify? Why are you even complaining (trolling)? After decades of pressure, the gun lobby (NRA, GOA, etc) has finally eliminated CDC's role in researching gun violence. Is outright victory insufficient? Must you continue to belabor the point?