Saturday, May 07, 2005
Fight The Fat?!
We reported 17 days ago that the Center for Disease Control had revised it's work to conclude that obesity is not anywhere near the killer they previously thought it was.
People are just waking up to that fact now. There were two pieces on it yesterday. One from JunkScience via FOXNews and the other from Daniel Henninger via OpinionJournal. Henninger seems to think the CDC's reversal makes it OK to talk about obesity again, that the great steamroller of public policy is no longer rolling.
JunkScience has it right -- it's about money. Places like the CDC exist to deal with real public health issues, typhoid, malaria -- highly contagious diseases that require governmental intervention to prevent wiping out huge segements of the population. Problem is, anymore, such things are not that common, at least not in the US. Well God forbid all those bureaucrats might find something else to do, no, now they have to create a public health crisis out of something that is purely a behavioral issue -- Trust me, I know a great deal about obesity.
Then there is the whole third party payer thing when it comes to health care. Tell you what, my weight every becomes a serious health problem for me, I'll die, or I'll pay the bill -- it's not your problem. So stay out of my face.
People are just waking up to that fact now. There were two pieces on it yesterday. One from JunkScience via FOXNews and the other from Daniel Henninger via OpinionJournal. Henninger seems to think the CDC's reversal makes it OK to talk about obesity again, that the great steamroller of public policy is no longer rolling.
But we are fortunate that obesity has returned to earth as a discussable issue, rather than rumbling across America as a quasi-religious crusade. There is much we don't know about the complexities of body weight, illness and mortality.JunkScience thinks the juggernaut has been loosed and cannot be stopped.
When the new study was published, CDC chief Dr. Julia Gerberding told the Associated Press that the agency won?t scale back its anti-obesity campaign which, by the way, won?t mention the new reduced death toll estimate.What I want to know is why is this anybody's business. Whether major or minor, why is this a "public health issue?"
?There's absolutely no question that obesity is a major public health concern of this country,? Gerberding insisted.
The translation, of course, is that CDC receives plenty of taxpayer funding to promote the obesity scare and it?s not giving it back.
JunkScience has it right -- it's about money. Places like the CDC exist to deal with real public health issues, typhoid, malaria -- highly contagious diseases that require governmental intervention to prevent wiping out huge segements of the population. Problem is, anymore, such things are not that common, at least not in the US. Well God forbid all those bureaucrats might find something else to do, no, now they have to create a public health crisis out of something that is purely a behavioral issue -- Trust me, I know a great deal about obesity.
Then there is the whole third party payer thing when it comes to health care. Tell you what, my weight every becomes a serious health problem for me, I'll die, or I'll pay the bill -- it's not your problem. So stay out of my face.
