samboct
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Joined: 1/17/2007
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http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/01/10/cdc.html
And Good Riddance!
Although many posters here believe the govenment can do nothing right, some of the agencies tasked with safeguarding public health have actually done a pretty good job- at least prior to the Bush administration. I'm still furious over the variety of metals, toxic/carcinongenic solvents, and organic compounds such as melamine that have made it into children's toys and the food supply with little more than a slap on the wrist for those involved.
But the CDC which used to be considered the gold standard of public health threats, has fallen down on the job dreadfully. The article says that Geberding did a great job of reassuring the nation post 9/11. Well, the much touted response to 9/11 has still left a number of first responders (my sister's one of them) who worked for days without respiratory gear, suffering from a variety of undiagnosed and untreated ailments. Firefighters have done better than EMTs in compensation- yet, the EMTs were often on the site for far longer. Katrina victims have been dealing with respiratory ailments in the damn FEMA trailers for years now and our overall response to Katrina was worthy of a third world nation.
Seems to me that Geberding was great on reassurances- but not so great with the science that was supposed to underpin those reassurances. Maybe that's why there's been such an exodus out of CDC under her "leadership"? There are clearly people who are suffering who've been ignored for political reasons- and she's facilitated that neglect.
I also read the before and after version of her comments on the IPCC report on global climate change. She'd done a decent job in distilling down the findings of the report into some areas which were going to be problematic for the US- not the rising water levels which are relatively easy to deal with- but the spread of diseases which run rampant in warmer climes such as dengue. This was what was redacted from the report- and any scientist with a vertebrate spinal column should have been furious. That she allowed the redacted version to stand clearly sent a signal to the folks who were at the CDC- this is a boss who will not stand up to Bush.
I'm happy she's gone....
Sam
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Head of CDC is OUT! - 
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