When it comes to science policy, we should take President Trump at his word.

Trump administration prohibited officials at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention from using seven words and phrases within 2018 budget documents: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” and “science-based”.

For those that think evidence is the only basis for decision-making and science ought to be the final arbiter for agencies like the CDC, Trump’s silencing of these phrases speak volumes to his ultimate agenda, and should not be ignored.

The CDC was formed in 1946 to address the malaria epidemic in the southern region of the United States. Today, it is the U.S. federal agency tasked with protecting public health through control and prevention of disease. The president’s interference is not only a clear-and-present danger to freedom of the scientific community to do their jobs, but also another signal of Trump’s interest in dismantling the nation’s scientific infrastructure.

Read the full article on Trump's CDC directive by Scott Andes at Brookings