Violent attack on CDC goes largely unnoticed

“It’s been a struggle to process what happened at the CDC just a few days ago. The facts are coming in: one officer died, 500 rounds fired, 200 bullets made contact with 6 CDC buildings, hundreds of staff sheltered in place for hours. The intention is undeniable: this was an attempted massacre.”

This was the opening of an August 13 Substack column and video discussing the deafening silence after the deadly attack last week on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, a joint effort by resident physician Kristein Panthagan, emergency physician Megan Ranny (also Dean of Yale School of Public Health) and epidemiologist Kateyn Jetelina of Your Local Epidemiologist.

“The state of the world feels unrecognizable,” they wrote. “We are living headline to headline, tragedy to tragedy…Our world is swallowed whole by the endless churn of violence and crisis we’ve come to accept as ordinary. We are drowning in the abnormal…”

In a LinkedIn post, Jeletina wrote: “As horrific as it was to have 500 bullets fired toward the CDC, what’s been equally painful is what followed (or rather, what didn’t). The silence. The indifference. It's been deafening. Especially after all that public health has given over the past six years.”

For more click here.

The CDC has done great work in making the public health of Americans better than it would otherwise be without their good work. However the attacks by MAGA, DOGE, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. have cultivated animosity, and vilification by the scientifically illiterate who resent limits being put on their life threatening behaviors.

Our society will enjoy a higher quality of life for all if we support our public health programs.

Keep the faith. Stay strong. Be courageous. Tell the truth. Do the right thing. Focus on what matters in an age of cruelty in the US.

The following article was written and published on davidgmarkham.substack.com on 01/26/25. Not much has changed other than the national well being deteriorating further in the US.

A colleague wrote in part : “This has been an ugly week of multiple clients upset with the executive orders. The thing that continues to strike me is how der Trumpenfuhrer embodies the sum of all fears…..I spent two hours on Zoom today with crying people in the midst of the total meltdown of their lives, having lost jobs in the past several months and now worried about the ways in which the executive orders will effect them and the world. It was an ugly day.”

My reply is below:

It seems very important for therapists to support one another in what they are observing and experiencing. Vicarious trauma may be on the rise in our profession when therapists witness and describe days like the one you just had.

Psychopaths like pain. Inflicting pain is the point because it makes them feel powerful. Perhaps one of the most challenging things for therapists to observe and attempt to mitigate is cruelty and sadism.

In recent days not only is cruelty and sadism being perpetrated but it is being normalized with "pardons" that lift external constraints and restrictions and allows those so inclined to behave in further cruel and sadistic ways with impunity.

As I learned working on inpatient psych units and psych ed what works best with these behaviors is injections of Haldol and four point restraint with a skilled team trained to exert a "show of force". These tactics are used only after de-escalation techniques have failed.

After such interventions staff always met for a brief de-debriefing so that calm could be restored and confidence in maintaining safe order was reinforced.

As therapists we need to find ways to keep each other safe so we can keep our clients safe as best we can.

Remember, cruelty is not a byproduct of what is being perpetrated, but the cruelty is the point to dominate, coerce, and subjugate. It is important for us as MH professionals to confront it head on, lean into it, and mitigate it. Some of us will be harmed in the process, but in the end justice, compassion, dignity, and peace will be achieved.

Keep the faith. Stay strong. Be courageous, Do the right thing. Focus on what matters.