{"id":1783155,"date":"2022-12-21T17:27:12","date_gmt":"2022-12-21T22:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1783155"},"modified":"2022-12-21T17:33:56","modified_gmt":"2022-12-21T22:33:56","slug":"cdc-funding-decisions-are-based-on-politics-not-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cdc-funding-decisions-are-based-on-politics-not-science\/","title":{"rendered":"CDC Funding Decisions Are Based on Politics, Not Science"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcdc-funding-decisions-are-based-on-politics-not-science%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1783155&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/2022.12.21-04.23-thepoliticalinsider-63a332e805870.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p><em>By John R. Lott Jr. for RealClearInvestigations<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For the second year in a row, the Centers for Disease Control has been caught ignoring science and letting liberal interest groups set its policies.<\/p>\n<p>In 2021, the American Pediatric Academy and the Children\u2019s Hospital Association tracked COVID-19 statistics in children and the data show no relationship between mask mandates and the rate at which children caught the disease.<\/p>\n<p>In the face of this evidence \u2013 and other data showing that masks\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.deseret.com\/opinion\/2021\/8\/13\/22623659\/requiring-kids-to-wear-masks-all-day-at-school-does-more-harm-than-good-utah\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">harm<\/a>\u00a0children\u2019s development, the CDC\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/cdc-tightened-masking-guidelines-after-threats-from-teachers-union\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">supported<\/a>\u00a0masking students after being pressured by the National Education Association (the nation\u2019s largest teachers\u2019 union).<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/thepoliticalinsider.com\/elon-musk-slashed-twitters-employees-time-for-washington-to-do-the-same\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elon Musk Slashed Twitter\u2019s Employees \u2013 Time for Washington to Do the Same<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now comes word that\u00a0CDC is again allowing partisan politics to influence its policies. This time,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thereload.com\/emails-cdc-removed-defensive-gun-use-stats-after-gun-control-advocates-pressured-officials-in-private-meeting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gun control activists got the CDC to remove research from\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thereload.com\/emails-cdc-removed-defensive-gun-use-stats-after-gun-control-advocates-pressured-officials-in-private-meeting\/\">its website.<\/a>\u00a0Yet, the CDC is trusted to impartially dole out millions of dollars for public health research on firearms: From\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2019\/04\/29\/house-gun-violence-study-1292456\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2020<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2022\/05\/26\/now-government-is-funding-gun-violence-research-it-years-behind\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2022<\/a><u>,<\/u> the CDC and\u00a0the National Institutes of Health (NIH) each spent about $50 million on such research.<\/p>\n<p>Until May of this year, the CDC cited a 2013\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20220713172632\/https:\/nap.nationalacademies.org\/login.php?record_id=18319&#038;page=&#038;cc=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Academies of Sciences<\/a>\u00a0(NAS) report showing that the annual number of defensive gun uses ranged from about 64,000 to 3 million. The CDC website listed the upper figure at 2.5 million. But now, the CDC has removed from its website all of those numbers and even the link to the NAS report.<\/p>\n<p>Following introductions from the White House and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, gun control advocates linked up with the CDC. They had a private meeting and numerous email exchanges, in which they lobbied hard to have the CDC remove the information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[T]hat 2.5 Million number needs to be killed, buried, dug up, killed again and buried again,\u201d Mark Bryant, who runs the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gunviolencearchive.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gun Violence Archive<\/a>\u00a0(GVA),\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thereload.com\/app\/uploads\/2022\/12\/CDC-DGU-Mark-Bryant-on-killing-Kleck-estimate.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a>\u00a0to CDC officials after their meeting. \u201cIt is highly misleading, is used out of context and I honestly believe it has zero value \u2013 even as an outlier point in honest DGU [Defensive Gun Use] discussions.\u201d He was upset that the 2.5 million number \u201chas been used so often to stop [gun control] legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"subscribe\" class=\"email-signup inarticle\">\n<h4>Support Conservative Voices!<\/h4>\n<h5><strong>Sign up to receive the latest<\/strong> political news, insight, and commentary delivered directly to your inbox.<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Department of Justice\u2019s National Crime Victimization Survey estimates that there are between 64,000 and 120,000 instances each year in which a firearm is used defensively. This is on the low end of all the other social science on this subject. Some 20 such surveys have been conducted. Three of them show about 800,000 defensive gun uses a year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/thepoliticalinsider.com\/record-breaking-defense-bill-wastes-unfathomable-amounts-on-dysfunctional-unwanted-weapons-systems\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Record-Breaking \u2018Defense\u2019 Bill Wastes Unfathomable Amounts on Dysfunctional, Unwanted Weapons Systems<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>All the other estimates are over 1 million, with one as high as 3.5 million. The average estimate is about 2 million.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3887145\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">William English\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3887145\">of<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3887145\">\u00a0Georgetown<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3887145\">\u00a0University<\/a>\u00a0surveyed 16,708 gun owners just last year, and estimated that there are 1.67 million such uses annually.<\/p>\n<p>The National Crime Victimization Survey\u2019s low numbers result from its choice of a screening question. It first asks a person if they have been a victim of a crime. Only respondents who answer \u201cyes\u201d are then asked if they have used a gun defensively. Yet, people who successfully brandish a gun generally do not view themselves as having been victimized.<\/p>\n<p>Devin Hughes, who runs another gun control group, GVPedia, argued in a July 6, 2021 email to the CDC that it should use the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) estimate of defensive gun uses. Hughes claimed that the GVA is \u201cthe most widely accepted compendium of gun violence data.\u201d Between January and mid-December this year, the GVA claims that there were only 1,112 defensive gun uses in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Last year,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearinvestigations.com\/articles\/2021\/09\/22\/there_are_far_more_defensive_gun_uses_than_murders_in_america_heres_why_you_rarely_hear_of_them_794461.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">RealClearInvestigations examined<\/a>\u00a0Gun Violence Archive\u2019s data from Jan. 1 to Aug. 10 and found 774 defensive gun uses. Ninety-five percent of these self-defense cases were from initial news reports. I checked those cases against other lists compiled by the Heritage Foundation and the Crime Prevention Research Center, and found that the GVA had missed an additional 30 cases. But that wasn\u2019t the important problem.<\/p>\n<p>What makes defensive gun uses newsworthy doesn\u2019t accurately reflect the real world. In GVA\u2019s statistics, 43% of the GVA\u2019s gun violence cases involve fatalities, 42% involve woundings, and 10% are cases in which shots were fired defensively that don\u2019t hit anyone.<\/p>\n<p>Less than 4% of cases involved no shots fired, and more than half of those involve the criminal being held at gunpoint until the police arrive. But as gun control experts know, these kinds of cases represent a tiny fraction of the instances in which firearms are used defensively for self-protection.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/thepoliticalinsider.com\/pentagon-admits-it-cant-account-for-2-trillion-again\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pentagon Admits It Can\u2019t Account for $2 Trillion \u2013 AGAIN<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>First of all, relying on the news media is not an accurate way to gather crime data. Criminologists know that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/crimeresearch.org\/2022\/12\/only-22-of-violent-crimes-are-reported-to-the-police\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">less than one-quarter of violent crimes are reported to police<\/a>. Nor does the news media even cover most violent crimes reported to police. Second, and much more significantly, about\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smile.amazon.com\/Bias-Against-Guns-Everything-Control\/dp\/0895261146\/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=The+Bias+Against+Guns&#038;qid=1636267211&#038;s=books&#038;sr=1-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">95% of defensive gun uses involve brandishing<\/a>\u00a0a weapon.<\/p>\n<p>Bryant defends the reliance on media accounts, and discounts the argument that the media disproportionately covers the most violent cases. \u201cI don\u2019t think it is a newsworthy issue \u2026 too many media really like the feel-good stories of homeowner standing up to home invader,\u201d Bryant wrote me last year. \u201cEven better if it was a granny doing it. They don\u2019t just go with the \u2018if it bleeds \u2026\u2019 newsworthiness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is a na\u00efve view of how newsrooms operate. Suppose an editor is presented with two stories, one with a dead body on the ground and another where no one was hurt because the would-be victim brandished a gun and the criminal ran away. And in the later story you can\u2019t even be sure what crime would have been committed. Which story would you run in your hometown newspaper paper?<\/p>\n<p>But even that isn\u2019t really the point. When a law-abiding citizen scares off a would-be criminal by brandishing a legal firearm, journalists don\u2019t typically wrestle with its newsworthiness for the simple reason that such cases are reported to neither the police nor the press. That\u2019s why rigorous social science studies are necessary \u2013 the precise kind the CDC is censoring to benefit special interests.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, Democrats in Congress have earmarked the $100 million in research funding\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3507975\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">for public health researchers who are far to the left on gun control compared to criminologists or economists<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The CDC keeps making decisions based on politics, not science. It has shown that it is not able to divorce political views from decisions about who to fund. But, as researchers know all too well, the CDC isn\u2019t unique. The government just can\u2019t keep politics out of funding decisions.<\/p>\n<p><em>Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>John R. Lott Jr. is a contributor to\u00a0<em>RealClearInvestigations<\/em>, focusing on voting and gun rights. His articles have appeared in publications such as the<em>\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>,<em>\u00a0New York Times<\/em>,<em>\u00a0Los Angeles Times<\/em>,<em>\u00a0New York Post<\/em>,<em>\u00a0USA Today<\/em>, and\u00a0<em>Chicago Tribune<\/em>. Lott is an economist who has held research and\/or teaching positions at the University of Chicago, Yale University, Stanford, UCLA, Wharton, and Rice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"disclaimer\">The opinions expressed by contributors and\/or content partners are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Political Insider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By John R. Lott Jr. for RealClearInvestigations For the second year in a row, the Centers for Disease Control has been caught ignoring science and letting liberal interest groups set<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1783158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[7446,6962,10905,10859,5458,5097,5733,6513,5894,3819,4613],"class_list":["post-1783155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-not","tag-the","tag-are","tag-based","tag-bongino","tag-cdc","tag-decisions","tag-funding","tag-politics","tag-report","tag-science"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1783155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1783158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1783155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1783155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1783155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}