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Climate Change
Called One Of Greatest Public Health Challenges Ever Faced
“Epidemiologists Must Play A Critical Role"
Michael McGeehin,
former CDC and Research Triangle Institute epidemiologist, addressed
the Congress on climate change which he called, along with poverty,
the greatest public health challenge ever faced. He stated that we in
the United States created this problem while those in poor countries
who contributed the least will suffer the most.
By way of summarizing the climate change problem, McGeehin told the
audience, 1) it is about events that did not used to happen, 2) events
that are actually happening now, and 3) events that are getting worse.
He cited tides that now come up through storm pipes on Hilton Head
Island where he lives, and showed a picture of people in kayaks at
South Beach in Miami. He mentioned extreme heat events such as the
one in India in 2016 with temperatures reaching 127 degrees Fahrenheit
and extreme precipitation events such as the recent flooding in
Houston which was a 1 in 10,000 years event.
McGeehin said “epidemiologists must play a critical role,” and he
elaborated on this statement in the debriefing session immediately
following his presentation there. He said epidemiologists are key to
answering questions about the health impacts of climate change. He
called for epidemiologists to speak up because otherwise the
conversation is taken over by ignorant and biased voices. He told the
group he is comfortable with an advocacy role because
“behind
you are data”. He used the recent AMA advocacy position on guns as a
positive development and said we are NOT seeing this type of advocacy
by other science organizations, including those in epidemiology. ■
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