Drowning is most common cause of death among youngest Americans. Trump might have just made that worse
Memorial Day cues the start of beach and pool season in the U.S. and this year it is also setting off warnings over cuts to a key facet of public safety tied to summer water fun.
With drowning already the most common cause of death for children aged 1 - 4 years old in the U.S., officials are sounding the alarm after the Trump administration laid off the team responsible for tracking and analyzing the fatal incidents.
In April, about a third of the staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Injury Center, which included the drowning-prevention unit, lost their jobs. That team also worked with the YMCA and American Red Cross to provide swimming lessons to kids.
Now, water safety experts say the loss will mean key data patterns will be missed right at the start of the summer, when more families and children will head to swimming pools, beaches and lakes.
'We're actively pulling away the lifelines and resources that we use to keep our kids safe, and that's really terrifying,' Sharon Gilmartin, executive director of nonprofit Safe States Alliance, told Politico.
Drownings will continue to be reported through the agency's National Vital Statistics System, the outlet reports, but there will no longer be a data team to analyze the results.
During the pandemic, drowning deaths reached 4,300 compared to around 4,000 in 2019, a startling report last year put out by the agency's drowning-prevention unit found. The report resulted in more media coverage, boosting public awareness about water safety and the risks.
'I can't tell you how many media calls we got after that report was released, because I think it was a shocking number to people, and they wanted to know what's going on,' Amy Hill, an official who works on Chicago's water safety task force, told Politico. 'When the CDC issues a report like that, people pay attention.'
The layoffs have also impacted partnerships between the agency and the YMCA and the American Red Cross, who collaborated with the drowning-prevention team on supporting getting at-risk children into swimming lessons, according to the outlet.
The Department of Health and Human Services told Politico that the administration was not ending its support for drowning prevention.
'The safety and well-being of all Americans – especially our nation's children – is a top priority for HHS and Secretary Kennedy,' a HHS spokesperson said. 'The Department is strongly committed to preventing tragic and preventable deaths, including those caused by drowning.'
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been questioned by Democrats about other cuts to his department, but so far, he has not been heavily scrutinized for axing the drowning-prevention team.
Insiders said that the team had other work in progress that will now go to waste.
'The way that this was done means that there was a lot of taxpayer dollars that were wasted here because there was work already in process,' an anonymous CDC official told Politico.
'We could have done it in a way that did not undermine all of this critical work, especially for something like drowning, that literally nobody else is working on.'
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