Losing Perspicacity, August 29, 2025

Good morning and Happy Friday! Thanks for starting your day here with me.

In Season One of The Walking Dead, a significant plotline unfolds at the CDC, which is being held down by a single scientist, played by the always-excellent Noah Emmerich. I won’t give away what happens, because I still think the first few seasons of TWD are among some of the best TV ever, but suffice it to say that there was something genuinely terrifying about an America in which the CDC is not functioning as intended.

That scenario, as upsetting as it is to think about, is exactly what we’re currently facing, thanks to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his cabal of raw milk-drinking, sunscreen-eschewing, Ivermectin-chugging goons.

Yesterday afternoon, mere weeks after a gunman fired more than 500 shots at CDC headquarters due to misinformation about COVID vaccines, killing police officer David Rose, CDC employees walked out in protest of their ousted leadership.

All of this comes after several senior leaders resigned following RFK Jr’s firing of CDC Director Suan Monarez.

Keep in mind, Monarez only took the helm at the CDC at the end of July, after Trump withdrew his first pick, vaccine “skeptic” Dave Weldon.

If you suspect that Monarez and RFK Jr. came to blows over the CDC’s role in vaccine approval, you’d be right.

Of course, Kennedy has been on a reign of terror since taking over the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), chasing pretty much anyone with a brain and knowledge of public health/infectious diseases out the door and replacing them with people who get their medical information from TikTok and Facebook Moms groups.

Susan Monarez, for those curious, holds a PhD in veterinary science from the University of Wisconsin, and her research focused on the impact of infectious diseases on populations in middle- and low-income countries. Her dissertation, per Wikipedia, was on “how trypanosome GIP-sVSG regulates macrophages during Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense infection.” I don’t even know what any of that means. She also did her post-doctoral work at Stanford Medical School, where she studied African Sleeping Sickness and Toxoplasmosis. In short, she is a qualified professional who is well-suited to work at the CDC and make decisions that impact public health.

RFK Jr. does not have a single medical or scientific degree to his credit. He is a lawyer by trade, and, as someone with a law degree myself, I can assure you that science does not play a role in becoming a lawyer. RFK Jr. reportedly heavily used both heroin and cocaine while in law school and dealt to other students. He has no business being anywhere near public health.

According to RFK Jr, the CDC is a “cesspool of corruption, and he thinks he’s the one to fix it.

By “trouble” and “institutional culture,” I’m assuming that he means “facts based in science” and “conclusions backed up by rigorous scientific testing.”

Given that we couldn’t get half the people in this country to wear a mask and get a vaccine during a pandemic that has killed more than 7 million people to date, America hasn’t been doing particularly well in the public health department for some time. Today, I thought we could discuss some of the problems we're facing.

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Today: How Trump’s CDC made the Texas measles outbreak worse; Can we still get COVID shots this fall?; Exactly how healthy is Donald Trump these days?; And the High Note.

Here we go.

RFK Jr’s CDC made the Texas measles outbreak worse

If you’ve ever seen the HBO movie And the Band Played On (or Outbreak or Contagion or The Hot Zone), you know how important the CDC is in not only researching and combating disease, but also informing the public on how to protect themselves. In February of 2025, the Trump administration not only restricted research at the CDC, but also prohibited the Center from communicating with Americans, whose taxes fund it. As far as I can tell, the CDC has not yet returned to its normal messaging.

If you want to see what the future looks like when the next global pandemic comes down the pipe, we need only look to Texas, which has already dealt with a mass measles outbreak, with no help from Trump or RFK Jr.

Measles is one of the most highly contagious diseases in the world, and the low vaccination rate in west Texas, no doubt spurred on by decades of misinformation about routine childhood vaccines, was only 82 percent. According to public officials, outbreaks tend to occur when community vaccination rates drop below 95 percent.

RFK Jr, who, once again, does not possess any credentials involving science, contributed to a massive public misinformation campaign.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time RFK Jr has had blood on his hands following a measles outbreak. Kennedy has been widely blamed for the deaths of 83 people, most of them children, following his visit to Samoa in 2019.

So if the CDC, NIH, and other public health agencies aren’t here to keep Americans safe, what are they there for? It’s probably also worth mentioning that the FDA, which also falls under the purview of RFK Jr., just announced that it will end routine food safety inspections.

Hey, who’s fired up for some salmonella? I know I am.

Uh… can we still get COVID shots?

I’ve had COVID exactly once, and it absolutely kicked my ass. I never want to feel that way again. Thank God for COVID vaccinations.

Unfortunately, thanks again to RFK Jr’s galaxy-brained, Aaron Rodgers-backed, Joe Rogan podcast BS, those vaccinations are going to be harder to get.

Best of luck to all of us, because this is going to be like the early days of getting the COVID jab, which is to say, sort of like the Hunger Games. May the odds be ever in your favor.

How healthy is Donald Trump, anyway?

There’s a certain irony, I suppose, to America’s public health system being decimated by a guy who has had a brain worm and seems to have never used sunscreen a day in his life, and a guy who regularly eats Big Macs and has a button on his desk to summon a Diet Coke at any hour of the day or night.

There has been a lot of discussion about Trump’s health lately, and I’ll be honest, I saw him the other day and thought, “Wow, he looks like hell.” Granted, the presidency is hard on people of all ages, and Trump is 79 years old. Even so, there is considerable speculation that he may not complete this term. And, while I was writing this section, this blew across my timeline.

The flames of speculation about Trump’s health were fanned into an inferno, thanks to this recent video on TikTok, in which a physical therapist claimed that Trump had congestive heart failure, kidney failure, and would likely die in six to eight months.

While I don’t know if any of that is true or if other medical professionals would agree, the bruising on Trump’s hand appears to be ever-present, and we certainly see him sitting more and more these days.

Then there’s Trump’s apparent cognitive decline, which is notable, especially considering how concerned the right claimed to be about Biden’s mental faculties. In the last few weeks, Trump has 1) claimed he’s ended six wars; 2) said he got all the Israeli hostages released (50 remain in Gaza); 3) made up an entire conversation with Maryland Gov Wes Moore; 4) claimed “many people” have been saying they’d like a dictator; and, frankly, said too many other competely unhinged things to count.

Then there’s this:

Trump’s inability to walk in a straight line has been noted on the golf course, walking down indoor hallways, and walking the red carpet (ugh) to greet genocidal maniac Vladimir Putin. I know the video is sped up, but he likely couldn’t pass a field sobriety test with that gait.

Of course, Trump's stance has been commented on by health workers for some time.

It also hasn’t escaped notice that Trump’s advisors seem to have to explain every single (generally illegal) executive order to him before he signs, prompting speculation that he has no idea what he’s signing.

All of this is to say that I have no idea what is going on with Trump, healthwise, but there certainly seems to be cause to wonder if we’re in 25th Amendment territory here. And if we’ve been there for some time.

The High Note

Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.

MN Governor Tim Walz has had a rough week (I wrote extensively about the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School on Thursday). But here he is earlier in the week, during happier times, at the Minnesota State Fair. I will never get over having to look at JD Vance’s stupid face when this could have been our Vice President.

I’ll be off on Monday for Labor Day, but I’ll see you all on Tuesday.

Survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down. Have a great weekend and join a union if you can!