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‘What the actual f—?’: Trump destroyed by the internet for ordering CDC, FDA to stop public communication

Some fear that the Trump administration is Making America Sick Again.

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The Trump administration recently issued a memo to the FDA, the CDC, and the NIH, ordering the healthcare agencies to stop communication with the American people until next month. While the memo does allow the agencies to send critical information to the public in the event of a medical emergency, regular communications between the organizations and U.S. citizens have been put on pause.

The internet posed a question in response: “What the actual f**k?”

Other users think that the move is yet another signifier of American autocracy.

While the memo to pause communications during administration changes isn’t “out of the ordinary” according to the CDC, American fears of fascism aren’t entirely unfounded. The president’s billionaire “first buddy” Elon Musk recently stoked public anxiety after performing a disturbingly authoritarian salute during the inauguration ceremony.

Donald Trump himself has also been accused of being a hair’s breadth away from an autocrat. The president has expressed his admiration for dictators past and present on multiple occasions, and threatened to be one himself one day. Or rather, on Day One.

Under a normal administration, the pause in communication is little cause for concern, as the three public health organizations historically have paused its messaging during administration changes. The Trump administration, however, is anything but normal. Trump has tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – a known vaccine conspiracy theorist – to helm the Health and Human Services Department. As the chair of the world’s largest public organization, Kennedy Jr. could potentially enact sweeping changes to public health procedures that could be damaging to the average citizen. Kennedy Jr.’s outlandish beliefs have even turned some high profile Republicans against him, including Mike Pence and Mitch McConnell.

Trump has kept many of his authoritarian promises. While campaigning for the presidency, Trump frequently touted his plan to forcibly deport millions of migrants from U.S. soil. On day one of his presidency, he put this plan into effect. The president launched a slew of executive orders that aimed to deploy military personnel to the southern border, reconstruct the border wall, end birthright citizenship, and halt the asylum-seeking process for migrants. Trump has made the claim that migrants are “poisoning the blood” of the nation, echoing white-supremacist language of fascist regimes of the past, and has been widely criticized for blaming migrants for America’s problems.

If Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed to the Trump administration at the end of the month, we may just be.

Trump has made a political career on eroding trust in American institutions, and claimed that he was the only candidate who can “drain the swamp” of corruption during his first bid for the presidency. The seeds of discord sown by Trump reached full bloom when convinced his many of his supporters that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and that they had to fight to get it back. And fight they did. Many still believe the president’s lies, as evidenced by this user who believes that the CDC, FDA and NIH are “fraud agencies.”

These “fraud agencies” are the only thing standing between Americans and a public health crisis. Multiple, in fact. The United States is currently suffering due to an epidemic of bird flu, causing the mass culling of poultry and record high egg prices. The pause in agency communications could potentially impact reports concerning the epidemic. It’s far from an ideal time for these agencies to stop doling out information to the American people. But under Trump, that’s what they’ve been forced to do.


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Sarah Fimm
Sarah Fimm (they/them) is actually nine choirs of biblically accurate angels crammed into one pair of $10 overalls. They have been writing articles for nerds on the internet for less than a year now. They really like anime. Like... REALLY like it. Like you know those annoying little kids that will only eat hotdogs and chicken fingers? They're like that... but with anime. It's starting to get sad.