Susan Jaffe | Washington Correspondent for The Lancet | 28th March 2018
A day after the horrific mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, where 17 students and faculty were murdered and 14 injured, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar fielded budget questions from a congressional committee. In response to Representative Kathy Castor, a Democrat from Tampa, Florida, Azar said there is no restriction on the ability of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct research into the causes of gun violence.
Questions about CDC’s ability to investigate gun violence—as it
“March for Our Lives” rally in Washington, D. C. March 24, 2018. (Photo/Susan Jaffe)
would other public health threats—have persisted ever since Congress passed the 1996 Dickey Amendment prohibiting the use of research funds to advocate or promote gun control.
“We don’t believe that it gets in the way of our ability to do violence research or firearms violence research at any part of HHS,” Azar told another congressional panel a month later. “I think we’ve now made it quite publicly—and within the administration—clear that we don’t see any barriers around violence or firearm violence research. We’re in the evidence and science-gathering business.”
His assurances were also included in the instructions that accompanied the budget agreement Congress approved and President Donald Trump signed into law last week. While some observers believe this means CDC has permission from Congress to proceed, some leading experts in firearms research are skeptical. There may be no barriers, but they say there’s no funding either.[Continued here] …
Volume 404, Issue 10464
