United States president Donald Trump has been making sweeping cuts and budget changes to government initiatives since he took office in January. In April, the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was the subject of some of these cuts, particularly the organization’s Injury Center.
While the CDC is known for investigating and releasing information about illnesses and outbreaks, e.g. information about the COVID-19 pandemic, they are also responsible for tracking and reporting public health concerns, such as accidental drownings.
According to the CDC, drowning is the number one cause of death in children ages 1-4, and the second leading cause of unintentional injury death in children ages 5-14. The CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control is the department that is responsible for investigating and releasing this information, and according to PBS, the specific team responsible for drowning prevention was eliminated.
Drowning accidents have seen a massive increase in the last few years, potentially due to lasting effects from the pandemic. The drowning prevention team had been investigating these trends and testing theories for potential causes, such as reduced access to swim lessons and lifeguard shortages, before the cuts.
This team was not only responsible for investigating and analyzing accidental drownings, but they also worked to reduce drownings through public health campaigns on drowning prevention and through funding low-cost swimming lessons.
States will still be responsible for reporting drownings to the CDC, but nobody will be designated to analyze these accidents or any trends that might appear. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services reportedly clarified to POLITICO that HHS will continue to support drowning prevention efforts, but did not clarify what that support would entail.
I have no idea why the comments are so political, but as someone who loves water, the need for swimming is quite critical for survival. However, I am unsure to why the elimination of the drowning prevention team at CDC is such a big topic since it does not affect swimming at all.
If anything, the elimination of the team is more beneficial since the money saved can be directed towards immediate measures for drowning prevention.
I can’t comment on this without sounding political- but I don’t really care about politics. I do care that people have access to safe pools and I do care that people learn to swim. It is the only sport that, as a novice, can save your own life, or someone you love.
To finish this thought: we need an organization with some gravitas (CDC or Otherwise) that’s doing the work to prove it, analytically. If we’re losing that group, it is a big hole to fill.
I hope someone does.
Continued effort by admin to lower life expectancy in US
Are we great yet?
I know people want all the “feel good” stuff, but the drowning rate per 100k is the same now as it was 25 years ago. Is drowning tragic and preventable? Of course. But if this stat hasn’t changed in decades, I don’t know what purpose the CDC has in funding studies and prevention. We are $36T in debt and run almost $2T deficits every year…we need big cuts if this country is going to be around for your children and grandchildren.
The dumbest, most cruel people we have are in charge.
Can’t say we didn’t have it coming, but goddamn does it suck to see it.
Ridiculous
Increasing trends in drownings, but they want us to keep funding them? No. The CDC doesn’t need to pay a team of federal government employees millions of dollars to tell parents to watch their kids around water.
How much money should we spend to identify why drownings are increasing?
I mean hey, maybe we’ll “save” a couple million bucks.
How many additional kids’ll die? How much would you have spent to save a kid’s life?
If ya wanna know what the numbers are worldwide, shuttering USAID might cause 25 million excess deaths over 15 years, and it’ll save us $12 billion per year.
We’ll save $7,200 per person that’ll die. Hope we put it to good use!
“Give a useless federal bureaucracy more money or kids will die of X” is a simplistic, childish, and naive argument. Anyone who has ever worked around water knows that the primary thing that will prevent child drowning are parents that actually watch their children. Solutions to child drowning are 100% local. Also, thanks for the USAID reference of hypothetical fear-mongering, it literally proved my point.
I have no idea why you are receiving so much hate, but you are spot on.