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Weekly Full Policy Report - 9/20
- atenmorin0
- Sep 19
- 4 min read
Dishonesty & Disinformation: The Deliberate Destruction of the CDC
All hell broke loose recently at the CDC and HHS. With a shooting, stroke of a pen, and the silencing of science, this administration has pushed us into one of the darkest chapters in modern public health.
The resignation of Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, is not just another personnel change. It is a flashing red alarm🚨. His resignation letter makes clear what we’ve feared: the CDC is being hollowed out from the inside, reduced to a puppet for political theater, and forced to abandon its mission of protecting the American people from preventable and novel diseases.
In just eight months, Trump and Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have already:
Stripped COVID vaccines from millions of Americans under 65.
Fired scientific experts by social media posts.
Forced CDC scientists to change their findings to match political talking points.
Replaced rigorous advisory panels with cronies who answer to politics, not data.
Silenced subject-matter experts while embracing conspiracy theorists and quacks.
And in true American tradition, the shooting at CDC headquarters has made brutally clear what happens when decades of anti-science rhetoric collide with authoritarian policymaking. Words have consequences. Lies have consequences. When leaders demonize science and scapegoat public health, they create the very violence that Dr. Daskalakis refused to normalize in his resignation: bullets aimed at scientists simply for doing their jobs.
This isn’t just chaos, it’s sabotage. It’s a deliberate dismantling of the safeguards that keep our children, our elders, and our most vulnerable alive. It’s the eugenics-fueled fantasy of a government that thinks only the strong should survive. And it’s being carried out under the false banner of “freedom.”
History offers us chilling reminders of where this road leads. In Nazi Germany, independent medical institutions were gutted and forced into alignment with the regime, paving the way for state-sanctioned eugenics and atrocities masquerading as “health policy.” In the Soviet Union, scientists who refused to bend to ideology were silenced, imprisoned, or killed, while pseudoscience flourished under political protection. And during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, government negligence and deliberate inaction allowed thousands to die because acknowledging the science was politically inconvenient.
The pattern is clear: when governments silence experts and weaponize public health, people die.
Dr. Daskalakis’s resignation is a true act of courage. He calls out the lies, the manipulation, the authoritarian climate of violence that have reduced the CDC to a shadow of itself. He makes it clear: science has been replaced by propaganda, transparency by secrecy, and life-saving vaccines by reckless ideology.
If this administration succeeds in destroying the CDC, we are all less safe. We risk a return to the pre-vaccine era, where epidemics ravage communities unchecked, where preventable death becomes normal, and where “survival of the fittest” becomes government policy.
We are watching the intentional death of the CDC. And if we do nothing, we are watching the intentional sacrifice of millions of lives.
We owe it to Dr. Daskalakis, to the scientists who refuse to bow to tyranny, to those injured in the violence at CDC, and to every vulnerable person put at risk by this administration’s war on science: stand up, fight back, and don’t stop until we win.
SCHOOL BOARD ACTION
Just Schools is working to monitor school boards for both good and bad policy debates. There is currently a debate happening in the Peoria Unified School District.
Current Situation: PUSD Board President Heather Rooks is seeking to change the title of Policy 4-202 from “Staff/Student Boundaries” to “No Grooming/Child Protection”.
Below are some talking points against changing the Title of Staff/Student Boundaries Policy. If you notice the proposed policy change (red marks are the proposed changes), the changes mainly focus on changing the title and this does nothing to increase the safety and protection of PUSD students.
Our main points of consideration:
We all want to protect kids from abuse and changing the title of a child protection policy does not increase the safety of PUSD students.
With no clear definition of grooming, this policy can be weaponized by anyone - and that does not increase the protection of PUSD students from abuse.
The way to increase protecting students from abuse is through training and education, for both staff and students.
It’s not just the current political climate. Any vague policy could be misused toward individuals in inappropriate, unconstitutional, or illegal ways. Protection comes in the form of knowledge and resources available to Peoria students, families, and school staff.
Action: The next upcoming PUSD Board Meeting is on September 25, 2025. You may contact Board Members here asking them to push for education and training, not hollow title changes. We’re mobilizing outreach for comments and speakers for meetings - if you wish to speak out at a meeting please contact kelley dupps at policy@justschools.org.
CIVIC LITERACY - DISCRIMINATION & HARASSMENT COMPLAINT FORM
By documenting your ongoing lived experience, government officials can no longer claim their ignorance of the problem. Bullying, harassment, and discrimination disrupt a student’s education and threaten their academic attainment and physical and mental health. Don’t be silent.
If you have been discriminated against or have experienced harassment at school, consider filing a complaint with the Civil Rights division with the Arizona Attorney General here: (https://www.azag.gov/complaints/civil-rights)
NEWS
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