Chris_Halkides
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2009
- Messages
- 13,003
At MedPage Today Benedicte Callan wrote, One of his favorite tall tales involves Americans having been healthierwhen his uncle, John F. Kennedy, was president. "I was raised in a time where we did not have a chronic disease epidemic," Kennedy testified during his confirmation hearing, suggesting that since his uncle's presidency, the percentage of children with chronic illnesses had surged from 2% to 66%. At times he's given different figures, but the message stays the same.
"His claims are nonsense. A 1960 National Health Survey, released during the Kennedy presidency, reported that 41% of the country had one or more chronic conditions. The numbers have indeed gone up a bit since then but, given that the U.S. population has gotten older (and people live with now-treatable conditions that would have killed their grandparents), those changes aren't a big surprise."
"His claims are nonsense. A 1960 National Health Survey, released during the Kennedy presidency, reported that 41% of the country had one or more chronic conditions. The numbers have indeed gone up a bit since then but, given that the U.S. population has gotten older (and people live with now-treatable conditions that would have killed their grandparents), those changes aren't a big surprise."