the public health community continued to believe the CDC mantra: that lead in the water could not harm kids. The CDC carried a lot of credibility. Everybody knew what eating lead paint chips did to kids, but without ironclad studies to disprove the CDC’s assurances about lead in water, the misperception continued. And the CDC, now invested in a cover-up, did nothing to reverse its claims until it had to. In 2010 a congressional investigation found that the federal agency had made “scientifically indefensible” claims that the lead levels in D.C. were not harmful—and had knowingly used flawed
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