Seven Little Words
“To find out who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” ~Voltaire
Over the weekend, the Department of Health and Human services made a very pointed recommendation to one of the nation’s top healthcare agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, commonly known as the CDC, over language that they are allowed to use when putting forth proposed budgets for future funding. The seven words that have become highly discouraged are:
Diversity, Fetus, Transgender, Vulnerable, Entitlement, Science-based, & Evidence-based.
A Department of Health and Human Services spokes person says that the seven words are not “banned” from use but are discouraged from use when submitting budget proposals. Ok, one might think, what’s the big deal? The doctors and scientist that have been working in laboratories for years to understand and develop SCIENCE BASED cures to various illness need to develop these cures based upon the EVEDENCE of the data they gather. This data may help VURNERABLE populations like TRANSGENDER people or even an unborn FETUS. By expanding those studies to a wider population based on ethnicity and gender, we could develop cures for a greater DIVERSITY of humanity.
As a member of the healthcare community who is invested in reaching out and enriching the lives of others through better care and compassion, I am incensed and outraged by the assumption that the American health and medical community will accept this “suggestion” at face value. In reading between the lines, the current administration is making a not so vailed threat to discontinue funding to important work if they feel it may help populations they feel don’t need help. Why would a word such as “diversity” be such a threat to the current administration? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, diversity means the following: “…the condition of having or being composed of differing elements: a variety; especially: the inclusion of different types of people (such as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization.” How is being inclusive a bad thing?
Medical research has its foundations in observing the evidence of the outcomes produced by the testing and retesting of experiments in order to find the best science based answers to the questions that face us every day. Even in the dark ages, physicians learned by observing the effectiveness of their treatments, even if it was to use leeches to bleed evil spirits out of the afflicted! The point is that the current administration is looking to disrupt current and future scientific health research by “suggesting” that certain language be omitted from budget proposals or face the consequences of potential loss of funding. How does this help the people of the United States live a higher quality of life?
My hope is that we, as a country, can learn to work together for the continued benefit of future generations. I am not so naive as to believe that we will all agree on the same path forward, but I do believe that we, as rational adults, can learn to listen and cooperate for a dialogue which leads to a path forward. As we get closer to the Christmas Holiday, my hope is that everyone take time and enjoy family, friends and loved ones. Take care of yourself and each other, remember, we’re all in this together.
Wm Reid
Best Home Care Services
325 N Eastern Ave
Connersville, IN 47331
765-827-9833
wmreid@bhcshealth.com