White House Scrubbed CDC's Climate Speech

Critics say Bush team deleted portions on global warming
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 24, 2007 5:41 PM CDT
White House Scrubbed CDC's Climate Speech
Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, talks about the Sars virus at Kent State Stark Professional Center.   (KRT Photos)

The White House halved prepared testimony the CDC director gave to a Senate committee this week, zapping sections about diseases that might result from global warming. A Bush spokeswoman said the speech was not “watered down,” the AP reports, but sentences such as “scientific evidence supports the view that the earth’s climate is changing” were excised.

A CDC spokesman said the edits were “heavy-handed” by the White House’s standards; an anonymous official preferred “eviscerated.” Among the warnings scrubbed were vulnerability to air pollution, waterborne diseases, and frequent hot spells. Responded the CDC director: "I don't let people put words in my mouth, and I stand for science." (More White House stories.)

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