Sunday, September 12, 2021

Flailing CDC Abdicates Infectious Disease Role To Target Gun Owners

 

Americans’ trust in the federal government has been in a decades long decline. According to Pew Research polling data, in 1964 77 percent of Americans reported that they trusted the federal government to do what is right “just about always” or “most of the time.” In April 2021, less than a quarter of Americans shared that trust.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s confused performance during the COVID-19 pandemic won’t do anything to buck that trend.

Recent research conducted by the RAND Corporation showed that “Public trust in the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has fallen during the coronavirus pandemic.” The think tank noted, “Surveys done among a representative group of Americans in May and October of 2020 show about a 10% decline in trust of the CDC over that period.” Moreover, “Declines in trust in the CDC were widely observed across groups,” including among those who intended to vote for Joe Biden.

Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that confidence in the CDC dropped 16 percent from April 2020 to September 2020. Again, this drop was observed across the political spectrum, including a 12 percent decrease in trust among Democrats.

...In the wake of its haphazard response to an actual infectious disease and waning credibility, one might expect the CDC to exhibit a modicum of humility. However, even with its pandemic mission incomplete, the CDC appears intent on wasting what’s left of its diminished political capital to attack law-abiding gun owners.

In late August, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky granted CNN an interview to announce the agency’s plans to target gun owners. Walensky said of firearms, “I swore to the President and to this country that I would protect your health. This is clearly one of those moments, one of those issues that is harming America’s health.”

Perhaps foreshadowing a CDC focus on gun confiscation orders, sometimes termed “Red Flag” or emergency risk protection orders, Walensky noted, “The firearm injury is probably the most distal part of what happens. It is the end event. What are the 10, 12, 15 things where we could have intervened before that singular event?”

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