Do you remember all those wild fires in and around Los Angeles, Calf a few months back. Most of those fires were started from a spark, a camp fire, or other such things. Those fires torched some 90 sq miles. Just look at the CDC opioid dosing guidelines – as a spark – The VA quickly adopted, as did the DEA. Some 30 odd state legislatures condified those guidelines as the law in their state.

The CDC did acknowledge that their 2016 opioid prescribing guidelines were misapplied. In April 2019, the CDC stated that its opioid guidelines had been widely misinterpreted and treated as hard and fast rules, rather than as flexible recommendations. The agency recognized that this misapplication led to unintended consequences and patient harm

The CDC acknowledged that the misinterpretation of their guidelines likely contributed to:

1. Untreated and undertreated pain

2. Serious withdrawal symptoms

3. Worsening pain outcomes

4. Psychological distress

5. Increased risk of overdose through use of illegal drugs

6. Suicidal ideation and behavior

The misapplication of the guidelines included:

• Extension to patient populations not covered in the original guidelines (e.g., cancer and palliative care patients)

• Rapid opioid tapers and abrupt discontinuation without patient collaboration

• Rigid application of opioid dosage thresholds

• Duration limits imposed by insurers and pharmacies

• Patient dismissal and abandonment

In response to these issues, the CDC has since updated its guidelines to emphasize that the recommendations are voluntary and intended to be flexible to support individualized, patient-centered care

. The agency has also clarified that the dosage thresholds provided in the guidelines pertain solely to opioids used to treat chronic pain and are not intended for use in treating substance use disorders

It took CDC THREE YEARS to realize that the 2016 opioid dosing guidelines were a bad idea. I am sure that there are thousands of chronic pain pts that could have told them up front, before the ink had dried on the paper that they were written on, that they were a bad idea.

It took only a couple of weeks for 90 square miles to burn to the ground, but it is estimated that it is going to take 15 to 25 yrs for the whole area to get back to some sort of normalcy.

CDC causes patients to endure needless pain and suffering. Kennedy can help

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2025/03/12/kennedy-cdc-pain-management-opioid-medication/82264222007/#

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention badly needs an overhaul, especially because of its undue influence on how doctors treat pain patients. Secretary Kennedy has the power to change this.

Not a month goes by without one or both of us receiving emails from desperate people pleading for help finding a physician willing to take new pain patients − a task that has become next to impossible.

Increasingly, these pleas are not just about pain management but about finding ways to end their lives, as years of forced reductions or complete discontinuation of the opioid painkillers that previously allowed them to function have left them bedridden, in constant severe pain or both.

Many have become “pain refugees,” seeking doctors who will accept new pain patients. These are not addicts seeking a fix; they are ordinary people who suffered an accident or serious illness. They once had full, productive lives but now face unimaginable agony.

Patients seek doctors who can help manage pain

Newly confirmed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has rightly called for a top-to-bottom reevaluation of U.S. public health agencies. One agency that badly needs an overhaul is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, especially because of its undue influence on how doctors treat pain patients. 

In 2016, the CDC published a scientifically flawed opioid guideline built on weak evidence, misrepresented statistics and a fundamental misunderstanding of pain management with “suggested” opioid dosages. The CDC stressed that these guidelines are only recommendations, not “prescriptive.” Even so, when a government agency that people consider the premier authority on health matters makes a recommendation, it amounts to a de facto mandate.

By 2022, 40 states had enshrined the CDC’s 2016 guidelines into law. These state laws dictate the number of pills, their dosage and the duration that doctors can prescribe them. They impose restrictive opioid prescribing practices that undermine patient autonomy and substitute bureaucratic oversight for individualized medical decision-making. 

Responding to criticism from scientists, physicians and patients, the CDC made minimal and meaningless changes to the guidelines in 2022.

Health practitioners who deviate from these restrictions do so at great risk − facing liability, regulatory scrutiny and even law enforcement action. Police department drug task forces may unfairly label doctors as “high prescribers” for treating patients requiring higher doses, leading to high-profile raids on their clinics. 

Desperate, abandoned patients sometimes turn to street drugs, which adds to the toll of fentanyl overdoses.

Prescription painkillers aren’t the cause of opioid epidemic

The public, with help from the news media, still believes the myth that prescription painkillers are responsible for the overdose crisis. This is demonstrably false.

Prescribing peaked in 2012 and is now at 1993 levels – a reduction of about 50%.

Despite this, overdose deaths soared from approximately 40,000 in 2012 to 97,000 in 2024. Illicit fentanyl, often mixed with cocaine or methamphetamine, is almost always the culprit, not prescription pain pills.

The impact on the sick and powerless is staggering. One pain refugee cut off from medicine asked one of us if we knew how to test her street-bought pill − she took a small dose and vomited for 24 hours. A terminal cancer patient entered hospice, where doctors denied her oxycodone, causing pain and withdrawal. A mountain-climbing athlete was disabled by a serious accident and, now with brain cancer, sought advice on suicide due to unbearable nerve pain.

These are a few examples of the cruelty caused by the CDC’s misguided medical interference − an agony beyond most people’s comprehension. Even this tiny sample reveals the unimaginable torment caused by the CDC’s flawed foray into medicine.

Founded in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center, the CDC’s mission was to stop the spread of communicable and infectious diseases. After helping eradicate malaria, which was endemic in the southern states, the CDC then tackled scourges like tuberculosis and smallpox.

Over the years, the agency has undergone mission creep, offering advice on many private health and lifestyle choices. An agency that takes on too many responsibilities can end up doing none of them well. 

Fortunately, Secretary Kennedy can address this issue. In the spirit of compassion, we urge him to reform the CDC, restoring trust by ending its interference with patient-physician autonomy and refocusing on protecting lives from communicable diseases and public health threats.

Unwanted involvement from an agency that was never qualified to engage in personal medicine has caused unspeakable harm. Any one of us is one accident or illness away from facing the same fate − suffering that we wouldn’t allow for our pets.

Secretary Kennedy has the power to change this.

Dr. Jeffrey A. Singer, author of the forthcoming book “Your Body, Your Health Care,” practices general surgery in Phoenix and is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Josh Bloom is director of chemical and pharmaceutical science at the American Council on Science and Health. 

Filed under: General Problems