Some new CDC information

[LovelyWillow]

I found this article today, seriously questioning the bias information given to the CDC, and how they failed to properly screen for it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/he...ml?_r=1&ref=us

I hope this makes them more cautious in regards to their upcoming "reevaluation" on their circumcision statement, since it is well known that many of the persons that carried out the trials in Africa were well known circumcision advocates.

What do you guys think? Will it have an impact at all?

[Crunchy Frog]

Very interesting article. With respect to the circumcision isssue, there are many potential conflicts of interest besides simply financial, so that these conflicts may be more difficult to tease out.

There are obviously many circ advocates who have a very strong cultural, social, or psychological investment in the procedure that heavily influences how they interpret scientific evidence.

I think that this article could be very useful in presenting our case.

[Fellow Traveler]

The fact is given what we know you would have to be some how compromised to think that circumcision was a reasonable proportioned approach.

[ursaminor]

Originally Posted by LovelyWillow

I found this article today, seriously questioning the bias information given to the CDC, and how they failed to properly screen for it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/he...ml?_r=1&ref=us

I hope this makes them more cautious in regards to their upcoming "reevaluation" on their circumcision statement, since it is well known that many of the persons that carried out the trials in Africa were well known circumcision advocates.

What do you guys think? Will it have an impact at all?

Can you give me some names? I am interested in what else (circ related) these people have done.

[brant31]

Tom Frieden, the new Director of the CDC, has a serious bug up his... ear... about circumcision. He routinely refers to boys and men who "lack circumcision" and to parents who "fail" to have their sons circumcised. He's on a mission to produce CDC's first-ever national pronouncement on the virtues of circumcision -- ideally, universal circumcision, though he humbly/ruefully acknowledges he can't force any parents to choose it -- and wants to time it for release in 2010 to reinforce a new, hopefully (in his view) more ominous pronouncement on circumcision by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Of course, this would be seismic, as no national medical organization has ever advocated RIC. Several such professional organizations in other countries discourage the practice.

Before joining the CDC, Frieden was NYC Commissioner of Health for 7 years. Emboldened by the resounding success of his program to contain TB in New York and his political legerdemain in banning smoking in vast sectors of NYC public life, Frieden created a firestorm by proposing to slow the spread of HIV by targeting gays and Black and Hispanic men for circumcision (despite the fact that most men in NYC are already circumcised). Civil libertarians were stunned. Frieden then was surprised that he failed to quell the buzz by suggesting all males should be circumcised.

I'm not sure what galaxy Tom Frieden lives in with regard to circumcision, but it's light-years from reality.

[tennisdude23]

This entire story about circumcision and the CDC is really quite hysterical. As time passes, I think it's becoming more evident that nobody is going to be recommending circumcision for anyone. The recommendation was supposed to be out months ago. This has not happened, which shows the lack of urgency here and that the CDC is going to be very careful in what it says, in light of some of its recent scandals. Since this story broke in August, the Australians and the Canadians have come out very strongly against circumcision. Thus, I just don't see a scenario where the CDC would say something very different than its colleagues. The entire western medical world is pretty much against circumcision, and it's very unlikely that anyone on the national level would risk their reputation to resurrect something from the fringes of medicine.

[AXEius]

i would love to see them both come out with recommending circumcision, but only so the rest of the world could finally know what this country does to their baby boys and only if the rest of the world would finally have the guts to stand up to the united states for doing something this terrible and and then ridicule or in some way boycott these two self proven agenda quack organizations.