Health care leaders and groups lash out over CDC word ‘ban’
Many criticized the organization for advising against terms such as ‘diversity,’ ‘transgender’ and ‘evidence-based’ in budget documents, but its director called reports a ‘mischaracterization.’
Words matter—but a recent selection of phrases has brought on ire from medical professionals and organizations nationwide.
On Friday, The Washington Post broke news that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—an organization under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—had “banned” a list of words from budget documents.
Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden terms 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 terms are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”
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