A Dangerous Liaison Trump and RFK Jr. play politics with public health and safety Dan Rather and Team Steady Aug 28 Credit: Getty Images Alarm bells have sounded so many times over the past seven months that you might feel the need to tune them out. But please don’t cover your ears on this one … because the newest one-two punch from the government authority designed to keep us healthy threatens to put the entire U.S. population in jeopardy. First, the newly confirmed head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was fired after she refused to go against science and her conscience by acquiescing to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Susan Monarez was pressured to change the agency’s vaccine policy to align with that of the anti-vaccine Kennedy — specifically his new stance on the Covid vaccine, which is the second half of that one-two punch. More on that in a minute. Monarez was also pressed to fire her top staff. Monarez, a longtime federal scientist, is now suing Donald Trump over her firing. In a statement, her lawyers said, “When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that reason, she has been targeted.” Her senior staff quit en masse, including the chief medical officer, Dr. Debra Houry; the agency’s top respiratory illness and immunization specialist, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis; and infectious disease expert Dr. Daniel Jernigan. In a scathing resignation letter, Daskalakis said the new HHS policies “do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health. Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults.” One CDC scientist on condition of anonymity told us, “My entire chain of command resigned yesterday. I am just heartbroken for my beautiful agency, which has been brought to its knees so quickly. And for our country.” Share The vacuum at the top of the CDC is exacerbated by recent massive budget cuts and Kennedy’s firing of 600 CDC staff members last week. He said the firings were to combat “bureaucratic sprawl” and focus on his big priority, “reversing the chronic disease epidemic.” But now the battle against chronic diseases (which was already well underway) is happening at the expense of combating infectious diseases. Covid is once again surging, and the bird flu outbreak is spreading fast. Some epidemiologists believe it will turn into a pandemic if things don’t change quickly. Meanwhile, CDC staff are still reeling from a deadly shooting at their workplace. Two weeks ago, a gunman fired 180 rounds at the CDC’s Atlanta headquarters. The shooter, who wrote that he was motivated by vaccine distrust, killed a police officer and then himself. None of this upheaval stopped Kennedy from rolling out his new Covid vaccine protocols this week, marking the second major blow to the health of all Americans. As of Wednesday, if you are under 65 years of age and not considered high risk, you will no longer be able to get any Covid vaccine. That was a deal-breaker for the CDC senior staff. Kennedy also canceled $500 million for mRNA vaccine research. It was that very research that brought the original Covid vaccines to market so quickly at the end of 2020 and is credited with getting the pandemic under control and saving countless lives. We know that a new variant of Covid is on the rise again because the CDC is still tracking and disseminating testing data. But remember Trump’s brilliant 2020 reasoning? “If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any.” Thankfully, that didn’t happen. But now it might. There is a very real possibility that the government will now stop testing, or at the very least stop reporting the data. And you shouldn’t be waiting by your mailboxes for those free testing kits the Biden administration sent to every American household, either. “Vaccines save lives — this is an indisputable, well-established, scientific fact. Recently, the overstating of risks and the rise of misinformation have cost lives, as demonstrated by the highest number of U.S. measles cases in 30 years and the violent attack on our agency,” Dr. Houry wrote in her last email to her staff. The CDC’s most critical function is emergency response. When done quickly and properly, it can prevent a few cases from becoming an outbreak. With regard to this year’s measles outbreak, the CDC had the means and training to respond but failed to do so at the behest of Kennedy, who has no medical training and is an environmental lawyer. More than 1,400 people have been infected with measles in 43 states. Three have died. A health official in Lubbock, Texas, near the epicenter of the outbreak, said CDC officials did not reach out until a child had perished. “My staff feels like we are out here all alone,” she said. “All of us at CDC train for this moment, a massive outbreak,” one CDC researcher told KFF Health News. “All this training and then we weren’t allowed to do anything.” Not being “allowed to do anything” is becoming an issue all over the federal government amid Trump’s penchant for getting rid of people he deems “disloyal,” who deliver bad news, or whom he simply doesn’t like. He is attempting to fire Lisa Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Trump does not have the authority to remove members of the Fed, but he is trying nonetheless. The White House has accused Cook of mortgage fraud, though no charges have been filed. She is suing. This week Trump fired Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, the head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, because that agency produced a report Trump didn’t like. It said the U.S. air strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites set back the program only by a few months. This runs counter to Trump’s narrative of a “spectacular military success.” Earlier this month, Trump got rid of Erika McEntarfer, the head of the Department of Labor Statistics. The president was infuriated by the monthly jobs report, which showed weaker than expected hiring numbers and a downward revision of the two previous months. Not surprisingly, he has also fired multiple inspectors general and several immigration judges. It doesn’t take a medical scientist to know that RFK Jr. should be fired ASAP. The possibility of widespread harm is a clear and current danger. Americans will die because one man foolishly doesn’t believe in vaccines. How many warnings do we need from some of the top medical scientists in the world? This is not meant to be hyperbolic or alarmist, but we need a reality check, Steady friends. As Trump & Company continue to try to control what information gets to the American people, it is imperative that independent media do everything they can to keep reporting and that you keep listening and reading. And please, look out for each other. Steady is free, but to support my team’s efforts to protect our democracy through the power of independent journalism, please consider joining as a paid subscriber. It keeps Steady sustainable and accessible for all. Upgrade to paid No matter how you subscribe, I thank you for reading. Stay Steady, Dan