Former CDC head: Shooting followed reckless misinformation by Trump, RFK Jr.
It is hard to get perspective. For most people it may be one more case of gun violence, a daily occurrence.
When I saw those bullet holes in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and then learned no CDC workers were injured, I actually cried. It was family. What is happening to us?
Symmetry in war, both sides being close to equal in strength, is common in history.
Asymmetry is something we have worried about with nuclear weapons, synthetic biology and specific agents such as smallpox or Ebola viruses.
A small group of dedicated zealots could hold countries, or even the world, hostage by threatening to use these agents. But I had never in the past considered the possibility that a single person could bring ruin onto public health in general.
Shooter was radicalized by politicians’ false claims
That is what President Donald Trump is actively doing. He recruits equally disturbed people, such as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to sow misinformation about vaccines.
Add to that the constant threat in this country of gun violence. Recall that the Second Amendment started with the alarm Patrick Henry raised that the British were considering a plan to seize the guns of the hunters and citizens in the colonies, so they would not have to face armed militia. He had no evidence for that charge, but it later led to the Second Amendment.
The power of weapons has increased, the accuracy and ease of attainment has changed, the limiting factor of saltpeter to make gunpowder is no longer a restraint.
Politicians bring up the specter of mental illness as the basic problem. Mental health problems are, in fact, often involved. But no matter how often it is pointed out that every other country has problems with mental illness, but not with constant gun deaths, there is no progress in learning from low gun-violence countries.
Also, consider the plight of the young man firing those shots. He believed the misinformation. He is the victim of what Eric Hoffer wrote about in his book, “The True Believer.” Hoffer wrote about those who find their identity following the belief of others. They delegate their thinking to someone else.
Americans deserve power of science and decency
Secretary Kennedy’s attacks on vaccines including COVID vaccines, are nonsense. He disregards, for example, the careful studies that show no link between vaccines and autism. It is easy to believe no one will accept that nonsense, but many do. And one man in Atlanta, allowed Kennedy to do the thinking for him with such terrible results.
Many crime stories mention the perpetrator visiting the site of the crime. Even that happened in this episode. Kennedy kept a low profile, but he visited the site of the crime. Social media has facilitated the process of delegating our belief structure to someone we regard as a leader to be trusted. This now often happens within minutes of an event. Recapturing the responsibility to think for ourselves is a strong tenet of freedom.
In the meantime, we must believe that good will win in the end. Science is not truth, but it is our best avenue towards truth.
The science on vaccines continues to be transparent in the face of disinformation. Beyond vaccines, “good” includes literally millions of people who use their skills in medicine, law, politics, daily life, to bring the power of science and decency to everyone.
William H. Foege is a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is a physician and epidemiologist whose global health contributions led to the eradication of smallpox in the late 1970s. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.
