A Rapidly Emerging Story

Sam Friedman

No Kings rally in Madison, WI turned out thousands to oppose the Trump agenda. (Marsha Rummel)

AS WITH MUCH else, the Trump regime’s attacks on public health come rapidly and somewhat erratically to try to keep the resistance off balance. Since this article was written, they sacked one leader of CDC and were faced with resignations by three others and a mass “clap out” and goodbye to these leaders as they left work for their final time.

People I am working with who have been active around COVID issues, however, point out that these same CDC leaders were part of efforts by the Biden administration to roll back masking rules and other public health measures as part of the government’s efforts to maintain business profits and prospects.

Advisory committees around vaccines and other issues have had their members dismissed and replaced with anti-vaxers, many with ties to the “wellness industry” and some of its untested products. And on and on.

Public health doctors, nurses, and researchers have mobilized in groups like Defend Public Health to write op-eds and pressure state health departments and legislatures to act on their own to protect public health, and a number of states have indeed done so around maintaining childhood vaccine rates.

This is welcome, and indeed I take part in a limited extent in these actions, but (as their members mostly recognize) these efforts are defensive. As the accompanying article emphasizes, we need to develop a massive and disruptive working-class response against these attacks, and do what we can to help such a response radicalize to get rid of capitalism and build something better.

November-December 2025, ATC 239