Has the CDC Grown Beyond Usefulness?

The Center for Disease Control was set up to understand and control the causes of sickness. One measure of whether a government agency has grown too large is if it starts acting weird, doing things that seem far outside the original charter. The EPA has gone too far with the CO2 endangerment finding the timing of which was suspiciously political. It came after Congress shot down cap and trade and the UN IPCC Climate Summit at Copenhagen was beginning. Obama needed more clout so he leaned on the EPA to produce this finding that is not only not scientifically founded (see Climategate) but is well outside the charter of the EPA. Again it happened at NASA, where the work of James Hansen, a self-avowed green activist, set out to advocate the theme (with the thinnest of shoddy data) that the globe is warming and much funding must be raised to work on the problem.

Two agencies, one theme: A far-future catastrophe awaits us in the form of global warming if we don't do something drastic (pay a lot of taxes, anyway).

Shift gears to a third government agency, the Center for Disease Control. What weird things have they done? Search global warming or climate warming on the CDC site and around 800 matches come up, speculations that are based on flawed temperature measurements located on paved parking lots and airport tarmacs. The temperatures contain major errors, so it is no doubt that the speculated rippling effects of those temperatures are even more far-flung and unreliable. How much time is wasted on these bogus scenarios at the CDC?

But I digress. It is the scare about the Swine Flu, also known as H1N1 that I want to talk about. While technically classified as a pandemic, it is no different than any other flu if not a bit milder in total impact. What the CDC is unable to do is predict the extent and severity of the pandemic. While the disease has not spread to everyone, the scare has, causing individuals and corporations to dig in, cancel travel and take other actions in the interest of safety.

It seems that the CDC has notched up their own importance by maintaining a fever pitch of excitement over the looming disaster. Looming disaster? This sounds like a page taken from the global warming playbook. And when a department has wandered so far from their original purpose to promote alarmism, it is time for a downsizing.