Citation

Faria MA. Med. Sentin. 1997; 2(3): 83-86.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Publisher Hacienda Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

As a physician, I have always been a staunch supporter of public health in its traditional role of fighting pestilential diseases and promoting health by educating the public as to hygiene, sanitation, and preventable diseases, as alluded to in my book, Vandals at the Gates of Medicine; but I deeply resent the workings of that unrecognizable part of public health incarnated in the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) with its politicized agenda and proclivity towards result-oriented research based on junk science.

It is crystal clear that the NCIPC has from its inception pursued, despite valid criticism from many quarters, a grossly politicized agenda --- abjectly losing sight of its mission and becoming a powerful arm of the gun control lobby --- to the detriment of traditional public health.

In short, a protracted war has been waged by concerned citizens over the perversion of science in gun (control) research conducted by the AMA/CDC/NCIPC establishment and promulgated by the medical journals. This battle, whose clarion call was made by the NRA years ago, reached high intensity through the Spring and Summer of 1996. Although we were not able to close the doors of the NCIPC, and that remains our goal, our fight culminated in a significant defeat for the gun-prohibitionists in the House of Representatives. This past July, the House voted to shift $2.6 million away from the NCIPC and earmarked the funds for other health research projects. The redirected funding was the amount formerly allocated by the NCIPC to their discredited "gun (control) research."