EDITORIAL Editorial voices from newspapers across the country
Editorial voices from newspapers across the country:
The Journal Times
of Racine (Wisc.)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, known commonly as the CDC, is America’s leading public health institution.
We were disturbed in recent days to find out that the CDC is encouraging – if not indirectly instructing – its scientists to let politics into their scientific studies.
The Washington Post reported that officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been barred from using seven words or phrases in agency budget documents: “science-based,” “fetus,” ”transgender” and “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity” and “evidence-based.”
“The assertion that HHS has ‘banned words’ is a complete mischaracterization of discussions regarding the budget formulation process,” a federal Department of Health and Human Services spokesman, Matt Lloyd, told The New York Times, which also reported on the story, in an email.
The New York Times confirmed some details of the report with several officials, although a few suggested that the proposal was not so much a ban on words but recommendations to avoid some language to ease the path toward budget approval by Republicans.
Whether you are conservative, liberal or anyplace else on the political spectrum, evidence is evidence.
We might disagree on how to go about fighting a disease, but if the CDC were to report that a disease has infected 3 percent of the U.S. population, that’s a fact, not an opinion.
Scientists aren’t afraid of words or phrases. They investigate and go where the data and evidence take them. We should all want them to continue to do that without their bosses either censoring them or encouraging self-censorship.
The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle
Most of us don’t think much about the system that regularly lands food on our plates.
The security of our agricultural system doesn’t cross our minds. And terrorism? That’s something we think about in airports or in crowded places.
Richard Myers, the president of Kansas State University, said last week we should adjust our way of thinking about the security of our agricultural system.
In a sobering report to the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee, Myers said our nation’s food supply is at risk.
“Key components of America’s critical infrastructure – agriculture and food – are vulnerable to terrorist attack with bioweapons and un-deliberate infectious disease outbreaks, and I think the U.S. is unprepared to confront those threats,” he said.
So what are we to do?
Basically the same things we would do to protect ourselves from more traditional threats. In this case, those steps involve research on infectious diseases and bioweapons.
The federal government would be wise to take heed of what Myers has to say. The safety of our food system and security of our country may depend on it.
Fort Dodge (Iowa) Messenger
No doubt some local residents found remotely controlled miniature aircraft – drones, in popular parlance – under their Christmas trees. The recipients surely anticipate tons of fun.
Aircraft pilots have a different view. The proliferation of drones flown by irresponsible owners has created a new, potentially deadly hazard for those who fly or ride in bigger craft.
National Transportation Safety Board officials have released a report on the first confirmed midair collision between a manned aircraft and a drone in this country. It occurred Sept. 21 over New York City, when a drone hit and damaged an Army helicopter. Those on the chopper were able to land it safely.
The drone’s operator was breaking virtually every rule in the book. He flew his craft about 2.5 miles away from where he was, despite a Federal Aviation Administration on flying drones out of sight of the operator, for one thing.
If you have a drone or get one this Christmas, enjoy it. But do so safely. Follow all the rules. Don’t be responsible for the first fatality involving a drone.