The complete list of forbidden words the CDC DOESN’T WANT YOU TO SEE

Bethy Squires
Kheiro Magazine
Published in
2 min readDec 16, 2017

The Trump Administration gave policy analysts with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a list of “Forbidden Words” on Thursday — words that are no longer to be used in official CDC documents. According to The Washington Post, the forbidden words are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.” But according to documents leaked exclusively to Kheiro Magazine and definitely not something I just made up, those seven words are only the tip of the iceberg. (Incidentally, “iceberg” and “tip” are also on the secret list of forbidden words.)

  • vulnerable
  • entitlement
  • diversity
  • transgender
  • fetus
  • evidence-based
  • science-based
  • soy-based
  • Lil B The Based God
  • prenatal care
  • iceberg
  • tip (especially when referring to penis insertion, we cannot stress this enough)
  • consent
  • women’s rights
  • woman
  • Voldemort
  • influencer
  • thought leader
  • foodgod
  • food pyramid
  • carb-conscious
  • paleo diet
  • paleolithic era
  • any era before the Mesolithic, when God created Adam and Eve
  • Adam and Steve
  • no mention of anyone named Steven (or Stephen), just to be safe

The rest of the list is just every interation of Steve/Steven/Stephen/Stefan that Secretary of Health and Human Services Eric Hargan could think of. He seemed to have forgotten Steve Gutenberg, which Gutenberg should be used to by now.

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Bethy Squires
Kheiro Magazine

Senior Culture Writer @KheiroMagazine, Boozy Sassmouth. Words in @Broadly, @Curbed, @Splitsider, @EntropyMag