Are new draft recommendations on breast-cancer screening the result of DEI-based political pressure?
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force—a volunteer panel of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine that makes recommendations for clinical preventive services such as screenings, counseling services, or medications—has generally been considered an honest broker, willing to buck political and popular pressures to give advice consistent with the available evidence. New USPSTF draft recommendations on breast-cancer screening suggest that this may have changed.
When the USPSTF last updated its breast-cancer screening recommendations about eight years ago, it found that, for women under 50 with an average risk of cancer, the harms of screening outweighed the benefits. It recommended routine screening for women 50 or older and advised younger women to consult with their physicians to discuss whether their history and individual risk factors warrant screening.
This recommendation echoed guidelines used around the world. The U.K, France, Denmark, and Germany, for example, screen women 50 and older, but there is no organized screening of women in their forties. Switzerland has no screening program for women of any age.
