Premium Only Content

COVID Exposed the Truth About the CDC
The agency will never be controlled by fact-driven experts shielded from politics.
reason.com/video
-------------------
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was once widely viewed as the gold standard in public health, considered an apolitical, science-driven bulwark against all pathogen threats, foreign and domestic.
Today, trust in the agency has plummeted because COVID-19 exposed the truth: The CDC is thoroughly corruptible, and federal regulators will never be impartial experts. They respond to political incentives just like everyone else, and a fact-driven, purely technocratic state is an impossible dream.
The Trump administration pressured the CDC to narrow the scope of testing so case counts would drop, blocked officials from doing interviews, and edited its flagship scientific reports. The CDC provided a scientifically dubious public health rationale for rejecting migrants at the southern border. President Joe Biden continued that policy, and under his purview, CDC guidance on school closures was surreptitiously written by leaders of the country's second-largest teachers union.
Tom Frieden, a former CDC director, co-authored a 2021 op-ed with three other former agency heads expressing hope that Biden's incoming CDC Director Rochelle Walensky would "restore the public's confidence in the CDC's scientific objectivity," with its reputation "a shadow of what it once was." Yet, Frieden endorsed large-scale protests against racial injustice two months after writing in The Washington Post that "the faucet of everyday activities needs to be turned on slowly. We cannot open the floodgates." Meanwhile, public health officials were keeping people from attending the funerals of their loved ones.
And could it be pure coincidence that the CDC chose the Friday before President Biden's State of the Union address to drop its indoor mask recommendation for the majority of Americans, even though the supporting data were months old?
In other words, it doesn't matter who occupies the White House—political incentives mean that, no matter how dedicated or competent the career scientists who work at the CDC are, the agency will never be controlled by fact-driven experts shielded from the "hurry and strife of politics," as Woodrow Wilson wrote. After decades of mission creep, the CDC's role should be strictly narrowed, limited to surveillance and coordination, leaving the heavy lifting to local officials and private and academic researchers who are more reactive to direct feedback from their communities.
Written and produced by Justin Monticello. Edited by Isaac Reese. Graphics by Reese, Tomasz Kaye, and Nodehaus. Audio production by Ian Keyser.
Music: "Robotic Butterflies" by Evgeny Bardyuzha; "We Fall" by Stanley Gurvich; "Free Radicals" by Stanley Gurvich.
Photos: BSIP/Newscom; BSIP/Newscom; Sarah Silbiger/UPI/Newscom; Shawn Thew - Pool via CNP/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Alex Edelman/ZUMA Press/Newscom; SMG/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Simon Shin/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Michael Brochstein/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Adam Schultz/White House/Newscom; Brazil Photo Press / SplashNews/Newscom; Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom; Polaris/Newscom; Jonathan Alpeyrie/Polaris/Newscom; Aimee Melo/dpa/picture-alliance/Newscom; Julian Stratenschulte/dpa/picture-alliance/Newscom; Sven Hoppe/dpa/picture-alliance/Newscom; CNP/AdMedia/Newscom
-
48:29
ReasonTV
1 month agoKennedy: A Gen X Rebel’s Journey From MTV to Fox News
5451 -
LIVE
Inverted World Live
2 hours agoTop Secret Area 51 Project Spawns 'Invisible Enemy' | Ep. 77
3,329 watching -
LIVE
TimcastIRL
2 hours agoUNHINGED Liberals PROTEST Colbert Cancellation In NYC, Propaganda Machine IS COOKED | Timcast IRL
8,416 watching -
LIVE
The Quartering
2 hours agoToday's News Chat & Act 2 Of Expedition 33
702 watching -
LIVE
SpartakusLIVE
4 hours agoMonday MOTIVATION || Games w/ the BOYS into the NIGHT
423 watching -
LIVE
Barry Cunningham
3 hours agoNEWS ON THE PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT AND IT'S A MOVIE NIGHT!
3,858 watching -
2:00:32
Glenn Greenwald
5 hours agoWorld Finally Horrified by Israel's Atrocities in Gaza; Mass Starvation Expert Warns of Spiraling Crisis in Gaza; AOC Votes to Fund Israel's Iron Dome | SYSTEM UPDATE #489
58.6K80 -
LIVE
Spartan
3 hours agoSpartan - Pro Halo Player for OMiT | Scrims vs OMiT Black
15 watching -
LIVE
crgoodw1n
1 hour agoMonday stream Pt.2! Max Traders are almost here!
56 watching -
LIVE
Gurk
1 hour agoMLB CO OP
43 watching