I would say I’m shocked that the CDC director is a coward.

Kennedy ordered Erica Schwartz, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to remove the deaths from the agency’s data. CDC staff had already accepted the deaths as being from measles and had reported them as such. Schwartz reportedly removed them from the public website without objection, though a report on Thursday revealed they are still included in an internal CDC database.

However, her confirmation hearing strongly hinted she was going to cave to RFK Jr’s anti-vax bullshit.

Cassidy kicked off questions by asking Schwartz directly: “Will you commit to this committee and to the American people to have the same integrity as [Monarez]? That if asked to do something which is wrong for public health, that you will stand up as she did [and] object, if necessary, publicly.” But Schwartz didn’t answer the question directly, only saying that she has led by integrity and that she took the Hippocratic oath as a doctor.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/07/two-trump-health-nominees-crash-and-burn-in-tense-senate-hearing/

Link to the article instead of the press release: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2851930

LGBTQ+ expression is the canary in the coalmine. Once they suffocate that they’ll move on to the next thing: women’s rights, racial justice, political expression that isn’t pro-capitalist.

Or a vegetable.