Here we go again…

You know, sometimes it frightens me that we’re so dependent on the CDC for certain things, since they certainly seem to be a little mixed up lately.  Here’s the latest on the obesity kerfuffle:

Scientists said they were relieved CDC was returning to the big-picture message, that obesity is a serious and growing health problem.

...

Two other signs suggested the CDC was backing off the report. It’s Web site now says the study “estimates that obesity is related to about 112,000 deaths.” In fact, the study started with that number and then subtracted the benefits of being modestly overweight, arriving at the 25,814 figure.

A reasonable thing to do, one would think.

All I know is that when Scientific American starts questioning your science you’re in really big trouble.  Of course, it helps not to say things like this:

...the 2003 assertion by Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that “if you looked at any epidemic--whether it’s influenza or plague from the Middle Ages--they are not as serious as the epidemic of obesity in terms of the health impact on our country and our society.”

I think there are two problems here.  There are a lot of people out there with a huge monetary interest in maintaining the crisis, and it’s not reasonable to believe that people are going to work against their own best interest.  And it seems to be in the nature of human beings to be far, far too involved in other people’s lives.  Of course, this is probably quite natural, and moreso for a woman who is heading an agency part of the purpose of which would seem to be telling people what to do (though I always imagined it as an emergency quarantine sort of mission, rather than a nanny-says-eat-your-veggies kind of mission).  I can’t, however, quite shake the feeling that this woman is the John McCain of the public health policy universe.

And since we’re on the topic, here’s another article on the benefits of not dieting.

(Thanks to JunkScience.com for the SciAm link.)

1. the cdc went down the tubes when they decided not to fight aids as a std because it wasn’t politically correct.
   your grandmother is in the hospital because she’s underweight.

   Posted by  on  06/03  at  11:18 AM

2. You may have seen this already, but… curves protect

   Posted by Ith  on  06/03  at  11:57 AM

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